Is Your View of Yourself Distorted?

Is Your View of Yourself Distorted?

Anyone who owns an Apple product has probably spent at least a couple of hours using their Photo Booth app. In case you don’t know what I am talking about this is a hysterically funny app that takes pictures of something and distorts them so they look crazy.

When I first got my Ipad, the kids and I sat on our sofa making faces and laughing uncontrollably.  The crazier they looked, the more we laughed.  It was great!! Here are a couple of our pics if you have no idea what I am talking about.  I have plenty more, but some are  just too embarrassing!

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Above is a lovely self-portrait taken with the squeeze option! Lol.

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And this one was taken with the X-ray option. Some of the pictures can be a little scary, but most of them are just hilarious!

However, as Avery and I were playing around the other day, it made me start thinking about all of the times when my view of myself is distorted, and it is not so funny.  Like when I start thinking negative thoughts about myself.  It begins with one tiny idea that pops into my head, and before I know it my thoughts and emotions are running wild.

It may be a simple thought about what kind of mom I am and how I completely bombed that day when I snapped at the kids.  Or maybe Rob and I had a rough morning and I beat myself up over how I should have handled things. And sometimes they are even negative thoughts about my appearance, my abilities to do certain things and even what others think of me.

No matter what they are about, when I allow these thoughts to run rampant, it affects my ability to be a good wife, mother, friend, woman and even Christian. It actually undermines my ability to be successful in each of those roles, especially in the role of being a witness for Christ.

Our minds and what we allow them to dwell on is so important. It is really where most of our struggles with self-esteem begin. I know without a doubt that is where 99 percent of mine start.

However, we can control our thoughts.  We don’t always choose to …but we can, or should I say, we can with God’s help.

There are days I come to this realization much sooner than others. Sometimes it only takes a few words of encouragement from a close friend to snap me out my negative thinking, but other times I allow these thoughts to ruin my entire day.

I don’t like it when my thoughts go in a direction that is contrary to what God says about me, and I know it doesn’t please Him either.

Psalm 139:13 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

While I don’t always feel “fearfully and wonderfully made,”  WHEN I look to Go,d I SEE who I really am and all that I can be through Him.

And while I sometimes fight Him a little (okay, a lot), He is helping me bring things into focus each and every day.

Help me Lord to see myself and others through Your eyes.

 

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