Ever gaze at an old photograph and notice how young or slender you were? I had to catch myself recently, because I remember not being satisfied with my physical appearance at the time when a certain picture was captured. But, to look at the picture today, (ha) I looked great. I wish I looked today like I did then… and to think that in the moment, I didn’t see that I was enough. What a wasted season in my life. I completely missed the fullness of joy knowing that I was okay. I remember thinking, “If only this was a few inches thinner or that was… whatever”. Now my thoughts are, if only I could look that imperfect again… it would be enough.
The very thing I complained about not being good enough, today I wish I had. I wonder if there are other areas of our lives where we are missing out because we can only see the 10-percent of what’s wrong and miss the 90% of what’s right.
For the teenager, it’s one small pimple that feels like it cover their entire face. We can be too hard on ourselves.
Why do we do that? Not just in being critical of ourselves… but, other people, places, and things. The food is too hot… then its too cold. My hair is too short, then it’s too long. The moments when it’s just perfect are fleeting… and sometimes when what we’ve been hoping and praying for is right in front of us, we can’t see it.
I want to learn to how to appreciate the imperfect moments, because those moments deserve respect too. It might just be that what’s perceived to be imperfect today was really the perfect moment… I don’t want to look back and see that I missed it.
I want to dance in it… grow from it… treasure it… take a picture and know that in that moment I felt great satisfied that’s what’s in me is more than enough. I’m Brenda Teele, come walk with me.