Week 4: Self-Portrait!

If you know me very well, you would automatically assume that this week's challenge would be...well, a challenge! My husband was even worried that this might be the week I jumped off the bandwagon! I have long hated to have my picture taken!  I suppose when I was younger, it was just due to being awnry or bratty but as I've grown older, it's become more about feeling insecure or not wanting to see my outward appearance. However, I read something on My2boybarian's blog that really spoke to me - she said that taking a self-portrait was not about the person in the picture but rather but the family members or friends who might view it later. And then it dawned on me...If I work to love myself and accept myself just as God made me to be, then most likely everyone else would see that as well, not the physical flaws I perceive myself to have.

I have been working on losing weight, making better and more healthy choices, and on loving myself and my body. So it will be interesting to see what aspects of "self-portraits" in the future might look different and the aspects that will stay the same!

Since I was little, I can always remember my uncle and my 2 cousins, Nancie and Sara, having a traditional family photo comprised of the three of them re-enacting the famous "3 monkeys". They would literally take this picture every time they were around each other and I will always remember the laughter on each of their faces, whether in their smiles or in their eyes, of how happy they were to be in each others company. They were really more like siblings than cousins. This past Christmas, my 2 siblings and I got together to have sibling pictures made as Christmas presents and I really wanted a "monkey picture" with the 3 of us..It didn't happen..maybe next time. So instead, I took 3 pictures of myself to represent this theme (If you just read that previous sentence and passed out because I tripled the amount of self-portraits required, just continue reading when you come to.)

When looking at those pictures, a thought occurred to me. Each picture in which the mouth, ears, or eyes are hiding was an area of the body in which I once was ashamed or embarrassed by at some point in my life. My ears were too little, my smile showed my gums, my eyes were different sizes, etc etc. However, what I learned from taking these pictures was that God hand-crafted each part of me for a very special reason and to disapprove of myself is to disapprove of myself. I don't know about the rest of ya'll but I don't want to go around disapprovin' of the Big Man!

So if I have any "followers", "groupies", or whatever you wanna call yourselves, I encourage you to embrace all of who you are...because God made you that way!!!!!

Reannon