The trend of #liesgirlstell came up on twitter last weekend. I found a lot of retweets of this lie:
“Upload pics to Facebook, comment ‘I look so bad in this picture.’”
Made me think of why Samantha Brick was condemned. She took “bad” pictures and still liked herself.
How dare she!
When I see pictures of myself with other friends on Facebook, I usually look at myself first. How do I look? Did those clothes work? Whey didn’t someone tell me my hair looked like that?
Do I look okay?
A good photo can give me a feeling of security, while a bad photo can make me wonder about how well I really come across?
I know I’m not the only one. How many of us have photos in our Facebook albums that we know look better than we really look?
I do.
Right now I have this wallpaper pic on my cellphone background. It’s of me and my son. I’m smiling a typical, non-photo op smile which means the dent in my cheek is obvious and my eyes are crinkled.
It’s a smile of pleasure, not a smile of perfection. But it’s me, that is how I look when I’m happy.
I put it up because it helps me work on the reality of what I look like when I’m not posing.
Each time I pick at my cell phone I get a little reminder that I’m neither glorious or hideous. THAT this is what I look like.
Quick, I tell myself, now look inside, what is bubbling up.
When I’m feeling insecure, the picture bothers me. I don’t want to look like THAT. When I’m feeling relatively stable I think, “Hmm, that girl looks really open and happy. I like her.”
Sometimes I want to change my wallpaper to a picture of my son. It would be easier.
When we post up a picture when we have strawberries on our teeth or one eye closed then it’s fine to say, “I look funny in this picture.” Last night during our family photos I wound up with half-closed eyes for a photo. It looked really funny.
But when we scroll through pictures of ourselves and we’re looking
like we look and our friends think it looks
great
and we don’t like it.
Well, if it’s an honest picture,
wonder for a bit about why you don’t like that picture of yourself.
Do we judge ourselves for looking just plain?
Do we think we deserve less love for looking less than glossy?
“Bad” pictures are interesting for what they reveal about our own tendency to hate the working body and soul God gave us.
Take a second and try to observe without criticizing your face.
Or try to giggle at your own photo for second, then notice the soul within.
You might find your insecurity melting into affection.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb …
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
The Message, Psalm 139:13-14
