Dr. Seuss' The Shape of Me and Other Stuff

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

As a mom, I want to raise my children to be God-fident. In the Message version, 1 Corinthians 10:12 reads:

You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence. - 1 Corinthians 10:12

This reminds me of when Jesus said, "In this life, you will have trouble, but take heart because I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) Our culture pushes self-confidence, and they mean well, but having confidence in ourselves only takes us so far. When life throws curveballs, our confidence needs to be rooted in something bigger, something faithful and trusted and unfailing. We need God-fidence.

I recently read some statistics about young girls and insecurities with their bodies. It startled me to realize how early these thoughts start.

• 89% of girls have dieted by age 17

• 15% of young women have disordered eating

• 42% of girls in grades 1-3 want to lose weight

• 45% of girls in grades 3-6 want to be thinner

• 51% of 9 and 10 year old girls say they feel better about themselves when they are dieting

• 80% of 10 year olds fear being fat

• 53% of 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies

• 78% of 17 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies
  

We have to intervene. The narrative they are listening to about their bodies is not from God and the messages they see on tv and ads are teaching and reinforcing this false narrative and serving them a misplaced and shattered definition of beauty. As moms, this message starts with us. We have to identify the lies we've believed and told ourselves about our own bodies before we can help change the narrative for our children, especially our daughters. We have to stop pursuing self-confidence and instead build our lives on God-fidence.

Seeing these lies are impacting girls as young as first grade, I believe we must start this conversation and teach them early and often. One way to reinforce this message for those in early childhood is through the beloved children's author, Dr. Seuss. His book, The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, can be a great launchpad for a more intentional conversation about how we are all fearfully and wonderfully made. Let's dive in.

I like to use a 3-Connection strategy in the following order:

·      Connect with Me

·      Connect with Another Book/Story I Know

·      Connect with My World / My Reality

After this, I like to lead us through a simple prayer. Whether it’s bedtime or playtime, it’s important to teach our kids we can talk to God whenever, wherever we are. This is an easy way to model this with them.

1. Connect With Me

Before reading The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, I like to start with an opening question. This helps the reader (child) prepare to connect their own experiences with the story. This is an important step if the application of the story, usually the moral/lesson, is going to “stick.” Consider asking questions like:

·      (Go outside if possible for a playful question) Can you make your shadow walk?

·      What shapes do you see all around you? (Brainstorm a list together and spend a few moments describing what makes each shape unique.)

2. Read the Story

If you're not familiar with this story or you'd like to read/watch the digital version, you can watch it here:

I recommend reading the story to your child or if your child is able, read together. Reading together can take on many forms, such as:

·      The child reads independently only pausing when help sounding out/context clues from illustration is needed

·      Help build stamina – child reads one page, adult reads the next, so on.

·      Adult primarily reads but child reads the page(s) they know (especially true if this is a book which has been read before and is familiar to the child)

·      Adult primarily reads and points to each word as he/she reads and allows the child to read certain sight words known, such as “the” or “cat” etc.

·      Adult reads the words while the child enjoys (and “reads”) the pictures.

3. Connect With Another Book/Story I Know

After reading The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, it’s time to help the child make a deeper connection – this time to another book or story they know. To help bring a spiritual truth to a secular story, help guide the child to remember biblical stories they know, or ones you can introduce to them.

·      It's true, no shapes are ever quite alike!

·      When the boy started thinking, we realized how different everything has been made. Even more, he realized "different" wasn't a bad thing. It's good! God created all living things for the purpose He had/has for them, and this includes us! Like the little boy in the story said, "Of all the shapes we MIGHT have been... I say "HOORAY for the shapes we're in!"

·      In the same way the character in this book looked at everything and chose to celebrate how God created him, King David from the Bible wrote about this very thing, too. It's interesting to remember that David didn't look like his brothers. He looked different. He had a different shape than even his own siblings. His brothers were big and muscular; they spent their days training as strong soldiers on and off the battlefield. David, on the other hand, was a shepherd, who spent his days taking care of sheep and had a passion for playing music and writing music. One of the songs he wrote is about the God-fidence - the God-confidence - he grew to have because He knew God knew everything about him and still loved him so deeply. Let's read Psalm 139 together:

God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful— I can’t take it all in!

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? To be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute—  you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

Isn't that incredible?! Do you think God can see our shadows if darkness is light to God? Here's my favorite part of this song David wrote:

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you. The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

God shaped us and formed us. Some of us are tall, some are short. Some of us have round faces and some have longer faces. Some of us have brown eyes, others have blue or green or a mixture. Our hair color is different, too - brown, blonde, red, black, gray, white. God doesn't make mistakes. We want to take good care of our bodies and give them good food and exercise and rest so we can do the things God planned for us to do. He has a purpose for each of us. We have been marvelously made and it's very important we always remember this. It is not helpful for us to compare the way God made us with how He made someone else. The plan God has for them is different than the plan He has for us. When those thoughts of comparison come into our minds, we need to push them out and repeat these words David has taught us, "You shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God - you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made!" We won't always understand why God made us one way and made someone else in a different way. David points out how God's thoughts are bigger than we could ever understand, and more beautiful and wonderful. He says,

Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them! I couldn’t even begin to count them— any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!...

Then, David asks God to look deep inside of him. Not only does he want to embrace and celebrate God as the perfect Creator, He wants to live in the fullness God has for him. David knows we are tempted to think thoughts that are not from God, and these thoughts cause us to do and say things that are not glorifying to God. Because of this, he asks God:

Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life.

You see, David shows us not only can we praise God for the shape and marvelous way He has created us, but the way we think and live our lives will take on a shape as well because it impacts our hearts. God really cares about the condition of our heart. He wants us to have soft hearts that He can mold and shape into His likeness.

4. Connect with My World/Reality

Remember how we said David looked different than his brothers? Did God care that David wasn't as tall or strong as his brothers when He was choosing a king to rule over His people? Not one bit! God delighted in how He made David. God cares more about the shape of our hearts. God chose David to be king because the shape of David's heart was soft and becoming more and more like the shape of God's heart.

I like how the illustrations in this book showed us the shadows of lots of different things. Why do shadows exist?

Shadows only exist because a light shines on an object. (Could be fun to demonstrate this with hand puppets using a flashlight in a dark room either now or as a follow-up activity later.) As followers of Jesus, the light of Christ shines on us, and our lives take on a bigger shape than just ourselves. We bear the light of Christ, and as we spend more and more time learning and loving God, we will see the shape of our life starts to change more into God's likeness.

We want to take really good care of our bodies, but we must always remember what is most important to God and let this be most important to us too. More than how we look on the outside, God cares about our hearts.

Family Memory Verse Challenge:

Psalm 139:13-14 (The Message) tells us:

You shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

Tips to make it "stick" -

• Save this as your phone wallpaper or home screen as a reminder to say this together in all your comings and goings this week.

• Print or copy this verse to a post-it note to put on the fridge or a family memo board.

• Write it on a napkin to add to your child's lunchbox.

• Write it together with chalk on the sidewalk one afternoon or draw pictures of the "good" you see God provide for you and your family.
  

Then ask your child(ren): How can we practice trusting God more this week?

5. Pray Together

Let’s pray together.

God, thank you for how you made me. Thank you for fun and silly stories like Dr. Seuss and how your Holy Spirit can use even these to remind us of the words King David wrote of how much you love and delight in us. Help me to celebrate the shape of my body and take good care of it so I can use it to do all the wonderful things you've planned for me to do. Thank you for your attention to detail and for being the Creator God who has never and will never make a mistake. Of all you have created, you have called us "very good." Help me to see myself the way you see me, like: ______________. We love you and we honor you with our thoughts, words and the shape of our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.

May we be strengthened as we soak our minds in the truth of scripture and joy as we remember God's presence is always with us, no matter what we step in. May we experience peace in all circumstances as we practice trusting God and may we rest in His great, unfathomable love for us.

For more examples of children's stories and how to connect "the Sunday stuff" to "the Monday stuff" for your family, check out the children's section at www.CandaceCofer.com

The good life, well it starts with a good day. Then another. Then another. Let's choose to live #TheGoodDay one day at a time.