Hi y’all!
If I am completely honest with myself, this post was very difficult to write. It’s taken me two weeks of starting, stopping, thinking, and deleting; and I am no closer to a resolution than I was when I first began.
Week 1 of Love Your Selfie is all about living unfiltered; now, if you are like me and have no social media and you love yourself enough where you do not use filters- how on earth does this apply?! After sitting in this idea for two weeks now, I am rather forced to concede that maybe I don’t love myself as much as I thought. How much of myself do I cover up to be more “presentable”, “likable”, and “better”? If you are like me, then it is likely spread across multiple dimensions of who you are. For instance, I struggle with body image in some situations versus others. In my Christian community, at church, or hanging out with friends I generally do not think about my body. However, at dance class and sometimes just going out with friends I am reminded of my body and then I start to nitpick. I, like most girls my age; tend to think about my weight when I am dissatisfied with my body. I might skip meals or try to eat less when I’m feeling this way, but mostly I just let that feeling come and go. I remind myself that I am loved no matter how I look.
This self-filtering does not end here either; it can be any of those quirky mannerisms or traits that you have that you tone down or cut out when you are around certain people. For example, I tend to snort like a pig when I laugh too hard, I love eye contact in a conversation and sometimes- I do not look away! When it comes to leaving a conversation, I tend to just stand there awkwardly in silence or continue the conversation with a new topic when I just want to leave. Whenever I listen to music my hands are automatically engaged moving to the melody and the rhythm of the song, whenever I sing I tend to have a bit of a country twang( I am from the south, but by no means do I have even a semblance of a country accent!), I am a total goofball and at times an airhead- sarcasm will fly completely over my head. One time, my dad managed to convince me that putting a banana peel on your head for 30 minutes would make your hair shiny… and guess who waited out those thirty minutes and smelled like a banana for the rest of that road trip! All of this is to say- do NOT hide who you are. All those things are God-ordained and God-breathed. Every little thing about is exactly how it should be and as God intended. So, don’t change for people, culture, friends, or careers- be genuine and who you are. Not only is it better in the long run you will finally start to be at peace with yourself.
Which brings me to the truth for this week:
“These quirks make us human rather than Barbie dolls, they make up who we are, and Jesus approves of our unfiltered selves. There is NOTHING in the world we could do/ be that would make him love you more than he already does.”
So, that is all I have to say. But just remember that it does not happen overnight- pick one thing and start letting that slip from your filter. It’ll be okay. I promise.
- Livdawn