T had an art project due in a few days. She was working steadily on it but was getting so frustrated with the look of it because it wasn’t the perfect image that she had in her head. I came home to a very frustrated girl. To me it was beautiful. The piece was just stunning. She believed that I was being biased because it was my daughter who created it.
I sat down with her and asked what she didn’t like about it. She showed me the tiniest little details that she “just couldn’t get right.”
I told her to get up from the chair and look at the whole picture. I had her walk across the room and look at it from a distance. I asked her if she could still see the “imperfections” from that distance. She said she couldn’t but she knew they were there.
I had her come back to the table and I showed her some techniques that might help. We tried a few things and she was content, not happy, but she was done.
While we were sitting there at the table trying other things, I said to her, “You know, life is a lot like this picture. Sometimes we are too close to our problems and looking at our imperfections that we forget to look at the bigger picture. You didn’t know you could learn a life lesson painting a picture, did you?” She smiled and that was the end of it, but I wish I would have said more.
I would have said, “Take a step back and look at your problems. Are they going to matter a year from now? Is this imperfection in your life really an imperfection, or is it me comparing myself to others? Is it that your seeing yourself through the world’s eyes? Take a step back. Reevaluate the problem. Sometimes being too close to the problem clouds our opinion or judgment. Take a breath. Take a minute. Take a step back.”
The tiny details that she saw as flaws, I never saw. I kept thinking if she could only see it the way I see it. If she could only see how beautiful it is.
I think maybe God thinks that a lot with us. I think He probably says, if she could only see herself the way I see her. If she could only see herself through my eyes instead of the world’s eyes, or her own eyes, if she could see that I see beauty in what she thinks are imperfections.
My sweet girlies, your value and your worth is not in what you see. Your value and your worth comes from the One who created you. He sees you as a perfect creation, beautiful in every way. Choose to see how He sees you. Choose to see yourself through His eyes. (I’m still learning this lesson myself.)
Cowles Farm 