#MasterpieceMonday - I Burned 'Em All

I hear women all the time talk about  how they don't feel comfortable taking "selfies." To that girl?  Sugar, I get it.  I'm not pretty.  While my husband calls me "beauty" I believe he is calling out my heart for others and my passion for health and wellness.  But selfies?  I take 'em.  Daily.  With a filter.  A filter that gives the lashes I've never had, permanent #LipSense and beautiful, smooth, flawless skin.  And a smile.  ALWAYS (most always) a smile.  

But filters didn't always exist and even though I have had an inherent smile in my soul for most of my life, it has never made me smile to be reminded that "beautiful" or "pretty" were never words ascribed to me earlier in life.  The words I heard when I was younger?  "Skinny"  "Ugly"  "Too white"  "Ghost" "Chicken Legs" Euphemisms about my tiny stature, pale skin, golden pale hair and outspoken, unfiltered boldness were not kind or flattering.  I lived believing that I was not nor would I ever be physically attractive and not photogenic.

Hear me, Beloved.  We are EACH created in the image of the Almighty.  But I have to believe that God is not tiny in stature. JMT. I never saw myself as created in HIS image.  And my own image wasn't something anyone else thought was good.  At one point in my life, a stack of photos of my younger self was thrust into my hands.  The giver thought I should have them.  They weren't organized; there was no love attached to the delivery.  They were just all of a sudden mine.  And in those pictures, was a child carrying burdens and pain no child should ever carry.  So, I burned them.  I burned 'em all.  Put them in a metal coffee can and set fire to them.  My hope was to set fire to all of the names I had been called and would be called in the years to come. I won't burden you with those.  But the "skinny" and "ugly" paled in comparison to the labels that would attach. And THOSE names?  Those were shackles I wore for more than 30 years.  

One day I decided I was not the names someone I had called me.  I was - and am a Beloved child of the Almighty God.  And He declares me - and you - "Good."  He knew us even before we were knit together in our mothers' wombs.  And because the God of the universe looks at me and declares His creation "Beautiful" lemme tell ya, love - I'm gonna live in THAT declaration.  And I'm gonna keep taking the selfies.  The sweaty, exhausted selfies WITH filters (bc, well, lashes and brows) and I'm gonna declare it "GOOD" when I share with you the smile that tells the world I am not quitting.

Take the selfie, Beloved.  If it means burn the pictures from your past (the physical and mental ones) then FOR THE LOVE, BURN 'EM.  Call me - I'll bring the matches.  And I'll help you leave the embers in the can and move on! You matter.  I believe in you.  And just like others have been helping me learn to love ME, I would love to help YOU love you.  Burn the pictures and take your life back.  

WGL, Coach A

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