Last night’s women’s ministry bible study topic was on FEAR.  We touched on a variety of fears that keep us from growing, from leaving behind a painful history, from living a more fulfilled life.  Many of us suffer from what’s called Atelophobia, the fear of not being good enough or imperfection.  We strive to please everyone else and fail to see at times that what we are most afraid of is that others will see all our imperfections.  We want others to perceive we have it all together.  We display what we want others to see on social media.  Heaven forbid if someone took a horrific snapshot of us and posted it before it’s edited, cropped and all blemishes removed.  Or how about that infamous selfie taken from up above to make us look slimmer, taller.  I say a good bunch of us do all these and more.  But the reality is, God created us perfectly imperfect.  We spend so much time looking at how social media parades what the perfect body should look like that we start to feel insecure about ourselves.  We see every imperfection and magnify them.

This morning I posted a picture of me slicing oranges in the Kroger parking lot because I had forgotten to do it last night after having signed up to bring sliced oranges for the band students.  40 sandwich bags of sliced oranges.  YES!  That was a moment that either A.  I could break down and cry, B.  I could just get it done and drop them off appearing to look like I can do it all and work full time, or C.  I could show everyone the true side of what happens in my real world as I get the oranges sliced and bagged.  In a brief moment I looked around afraid of what someone would think if they saw me in my truck with a cutting board slicing oranges because I forgot to get it done after bible study last night.  But what happened next was my saving grace.  I started laughing!  I took a picture and shared it on Facebook and showed everyone just how crazy my morning was.

We all have imperfections.  We all do things that in some eyes may appear as perfect but in reality it’s a mess of sliced oranges in your truck.  By not allowing this incident to take down my entire day, I in turn chose to allow myself to add a little sunshine to everyone’s morning.  I won’t always have it all together.  And that’s okay.  We ALL will have moments where we can either magnify our imperfections or we can choose to embrace them.  No one is perfect.  It doesn’t matter if you are the preacher’s wife, the VP of the company or the Team Mom.  Embrace who you are.  Don’t spend your days trying to live up to everyone else’s expectations of who you should be in fear they won’t like you as you are.  Love who YOU are.  Be YOU.  Don’t strive to be who everyone else wants you to be.  God loves you just as you are.  When He created you, He created you exactly how HE envisioned He wanted His son or daughter to look like, to be like, to sound like.  He knew what He was doing when He made you.  Be proud of YOU, imperfections and all.

XOXO…Ileen

psst…God Loves You

“For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.”  Galatians 1:10