What was you first school picture like?
School is back in session and the inevitable picture day has arrived. Most children are spit polished and shinned to show their best. So what happens between when you send them out the door and the moment the shutter clicks? You see the proof and wonder, ‘didn’t that photographer have an assistant? Didn’t he see the jelly on his face before he took the picture? Why does my little girl have horns,where she had pigtails, when she left home? Retake, retake, retake. Some of us think these imperfections are cute and show the real personality of the student. Others only want what appears to be perfection, and innocence. Guess what? Neither one of these things are possible. None of us are perfect and we certainly are not innocent, even though we would like to think we are!
I wonder what would happen if someone would invent a camera that would show what is on the inside, our hearts, if you will. What we really think and feel. Do you think perfection would show up then? How black would our selfishness and disdain make our heart? What we appear to people should be a reflection of what we are on the inside. What kind of games do you play with the people around you, who do they see? The phony you or the real you?
As parents we need to teach our children that beauty comes from the inside. Teach them to please God first and others will like what they see and hear. Again, if we are phony around other people our children will pick up on that, so be real! If the real you is something no one should see, CHANGE! Your children are watching!
We as writers often take our characters through a metamorphose to become the best they can be. Maybe this should be inspired by our own lives.
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
1 John 3:18-22