Coming Into Color: Fixing My Gaze

I've been thinking a lot about reflections lately. I shot this beauty while on a Sunday afternoon run with my man in a nearby park.

I wonder why my inner commentary is not, "Wow, let me take a picture." when I look at myself in a reflecting surface.

Instead the conversation with myself goes something like this:

"Those grays are really starting to show....you better do something....and soon, you are looking old."

"When did my cheeks start sagging below my jaw?"

"Boy, you are getting pudgy around the waist."

"I'm not satisfied with the way I look."

And it doesn't stop with appearance. I criticize my work, my talent, or what I am not doing, being, or accomplishing. I wonder where I learned to be so hard on myself.

It begins with comparing myself to any number of things. Other women, magazine photos, Pinterest, Facebook posts, television, peers, family.

Perhaps I will choose a different reflective surface. Perhaps it is not that anything is lacking with me. Perhaps it is the mirror I am looking into.

Today I will fix my gaze on a pure reflective surface.

I will spend time being still with Jesus. I will listen for His whisper in my soul. I will look into the Scriptures.

I will embrace health, not a number on the bathroom scales.

I will be grateful for every line and sag on my face that gives testimony to lots of laughter and living.

I will be grateful for my mind, my opportunities, my lot in life.

I will be for every woman and her dreams, not threatened or diminished by her being herself.

I will explore, enjoy, twirl, dance, laugh and be free to be me in full color.

~~Occasionally~~ Daily I will invite the Holy Spirit to blow through my soul with His perspective, unknotting my tangled thoughts and smoothing the old ruts in my soul so I reflect the glory of my God!

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"
1 Corinthians 3:16

"How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!" Psalm 84:1