This week I laid down a challenge. I asked the girls in my middle school youth group to take a picture everyday. The photograph should be of them, either a basic self portrait (selfie if you must) or a photograph showing how they felt that day, preferably with them still in it. The goal was simple: to find the image beautiful. Don’t look at your flaws. Don’t think about photoshop. Don’t worry about anything; just take a pictures and say “Dear God, let me see the beauty here.” I called it #7daysofbeauty.
The goal was simple: To Find the Image Beautiful
The problem is not that people lack “good picture” or “flattering picture”; the problem is our souls are broken. The problem was my soul was broken. No matter how much weight I lost I could not escape my soul which at that point in my life was unquestionably broken.
And the worst part was, I could do nothing to change that. No amount of love could mend my broken soul, not from my parents, not from my friends, not from my boyfriends. The world I looked to for help was just as broken as my soul.
Psalms 136: 13-18 (ERV)
You formed the way I think and feel.
You put me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because you made me in such a wonderful way.
I know how amazing that was!
15 You could see my bones grow as my body took shape,
hidden in my mother’s womb.
16 You could see my body grow each passing day.
You listed all my parts, and not one of them was missing.
17 Your thoughts are beyond my understanding.
They cannot be measured!
18 If I could count them, they would be more than all the grains of sand.
But when I finished, I would have just begun.
These words bore into my soul like a surgeon’s knife looking for my inner wounds. I am more than my flaws! I am more than my waistline! In fact those things are praise worthy! As I let these words mend my broken soul God used them to show me love. He was not angry with me for loosing sight of His workmanship in me, no more then I would be angry with Destructo for saying she wasn’t pretty. His heart broke for me and with me as I struggled to see His signature on the masterpiece called “me”.
#7daysofbeauty
@tt_lookingglass
So I showed the girls. I showed them these words, God’s words; the words that began to mend my broken soul. And I challenged them to something simple. Take a picture everyday for a week. We all do it. Take a selfie and post it to your Instagram or Twitter, but this time say these simple words before posting it;
“God let me see you beautiful design in this image.”
Don’t you want to see the artist’s signature in your reflection? You formed the way I think and feel. You put me together in my mother’s womb. God crafted you piece by piece; His signature is on every part.
Skylar Glass Photography 