What’s Wrong With This Picture?

What’s Wrong with This Picture?

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1, NIV

I have a confession: I don’t take a lot of selfies. But when I do, I have to take about a million until I get one I deem acceptable. The other day, I was trying to take a picture I liked, and it took forever. I switched from side to side; I tried smiling with my mouth open and then closed. As I looked through them, the running “what’s wrong with this picture” thinking just wouldn’t quit—my hair was out of place, my smile looked awkward, or the lighting was wrong.

That running dialogue can be heartbreakingly negative. After all, the things I deem “unacceptable” are all facets of me. It can make me feel as though I’m the unacceptable one. What’s harder still is that these are photos of me at my best. Hair done, makeup on, perfectly posed. The truth is, there are many days when I wear my glasses all day, shove my hair into a ponytail, and wear workout pants I don’t even bother working out in.

Sometimes the hardest acts of kindness are the ones we show ourselves. Yet I’m reminded that the Bible asks us to “offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is [our] true and proper worship.” God doesn’t make mistakes, and he sees us as lovely and pleasing. Why shouldn’t we view ourselves the way he does?

That not-quite-put-together woman? She’s me too. She’s the woman my husband married, the one he wakes up next to each day and kisses before he leaves for work. She’s the one who comforts our children when they wake up scared or sick, the one who rocks the baby to sleep. In those moments, she has no thought for makeup or hair, no concern over whether what she’s wearing is fashionable.

She is lovely because she is real. She’s a wife, a mom, a daughter, a sister, a friend. She’s you, too. You are loved and accepted and acceptable just as you are.

—Kristin

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Whenever you catch yourself saying something negative about yourself, even in your head, remind yourself of how God sees you and choose to say something kind about yourself instead.