Eyes Of The Beholder

My apologies for skipping yesterday's blog post. I am spending time with my youngest sons in Los Banos and the day got away from me. I actually had a friend who has been following my blog post and she got worried about me, so she checked in on me today to make sure I was doing okay. God is so wonderful in providing me with much amazing friends. I had started writing another sequel to the Human Resources blog late last night, but I decided to put my Human Resources expertise aside and save it possibly for another separate blog idea at a later time. I figured I could get away with one post of HR, since it was very much a part of my testimony as it consumed about 23 years of my life. My HR life has stories within stories in itself.

So as I was chatting with one of my beautiful BFF's in life, she actually gave me the concept for today's blog. I was telling her about a time when I hardly let anyone take any pictures of me, because I lacked the confidence of putting my larger than life images along side all the beautiful people who wanted to capture memories with a group photo. My single pictures of myself were far and few between during a span about 30 years. She shared that she didn't care to have her picture taken as well. My friend is beautiful!! I couldn't imagine why she wouldn't have had pictures taken. We all have our reasons. So she told me it was in the Eyes of the Beholder of why I thought she was beautiful. If I shared her image, you would all agree. She is a light in my life and her outward beauty is a bright as her inward beauty.

In previous blogs, I've shared my obese pictures. I struggled with my weight on and off for over 30 years. Most of it was due to my Graves/Hashimoto Thyroid Disease and also, because I had food insecurity which caused me to develop poor eating habits. Needless to say, I did not want to capture myself in any picture and have that image be the one that I was remembered as for beyond my life. Then one day, my oldest son informed me that I needed to take pictures of myself and with groups as one day, those may be the only memories my children will have after God calls me home. Oh he touched my heart strings that day. He reminded me that I may have some confident issues pertaining to myself, but that he thought I was very beautiful and would be very sad if I didn't capture myself throughout my life that he could look back on one day. Even if they are just digital images. So from that day forward, I set aside my own biases and and give my best smile to leave behind a memory of whatever day we are capturing.

I'm so hard on myself. Sometimes I'll look back at some of the pictures that were captured of me and I cringe when I see them. Pictures can invoke so many memories both good and bad. One day I was reading an article about how we should really recognize how fearfully and wonderfully we are made. When we self talk ourselves into believing we are less than to behold, we are actually telling God that everything we have been blessed with is less than. This is a God who thought of us long before we were even thought of by our parents and born. He put every piece of who we are together and I'm sure said to Himself that what he perceived and created us to be was very good and gave us a life and a purpose. Next time you look into a mirror or previous photos of yourself where you feel you are inadequate to look at, remember God created you to be precisely who you are both inside and outside. And you know what? I can guarantee that the Trinity thinks you are pretty amazing as Jesus's blood has covered our sin and our ugliness. I love that quote and meme that says when you are feeling less than about yourself, to straighten your crown and remember whose daughter you are and who you belong to. Remember, we belong to a King!! The King of all kings!!!

I'm reading Max Lucado's "Tame Your Thoughts" -- this book should be handed out to every person on the planet. We really need to tame our thoughts and quit the stinking thinking we often let permeate every inch of our brains. We need to fill our thoughts with good thoughts!! I remember even when I was a young girl -- a flawless young girl -- I used to think I was the ugliest person alive. I now look back on those pictures and I think, how could I possibly think that beautiful little creature was ugly. Why do we let negative input rule our minds so much and then get to a point in adulthood, where you just quit taking pictures and think so little of yourself? It is so sad. Now there is another side of the spectrum of this -- where some people are so into self admiration and love, it gets nauseating. I think it is fair to say that we need to find our balance and humility. I laugh as I type this last sentence.

I have another BFF, who has been so amazing at capturing not only her family's portraits and memories, but also everyone around her. She has a gift of taking beautiful pictures. She keeps them for her own memories, but is also so generous in sharing them with the families she has taken pictures of to capture the happy memories. There was one time when she and her husband had visited with me and my ex-husband and we went to the beach. My most favorite place on the earth. Unknown to me, she had captured a picture of me that I LOVE -- I had run shoeless down to the shoreline of the ocean waves, with flip flops in my left hand and raised my arms up to God and was praising Him for the majesticness of His creation. It captured how I feel every single time I revisit the ocean shores. It is a picture where I was still at my heaviest, but she managed to capture a moment. Between God and myself.

Some of my nicest pictures of my grandchildren's earliest memories were captured by this friend and shared with me. I've always called her a historian. To this day, her Facebook is filled with so many wonderful photographed memories she shares with her friends and family.  Between her and my oldest son, I have gotten a whole lot better at capturing the memories through photographs.

So my message to you -- take as many pictures of memories as you can!! If they don't mean that much to you, they may, one day, to the Eyes Of The Beholder.

Proverbs 10:7 -- "The memory of the righteous is blessed."

Deuteronomy 32: 7 -- Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations : Ask thy father, and he will shew thee; Thy elders, and they will tell thee.