It used to be that photo editing was available only to professional photographers. Magazines had perfect pictures of celebrities and we used to look at them in awe and wish we could look even half as beautiful. The perfection we saw was completely unachievable.
And, then new technology came along and now with the click of a few buttons on our cameras and phones, we all have the power to edit photos. Tighten this? Erase that? Smooth those? No problem! We can work on a photo until we achieve a “better” version of ourselves. And, people all over the internet are doing just that. After all, it can be pretty addicting to lose twenty pounds instantly or reverse the aging of our skin with the simple click of a button.
One of the downsides of all this “power” is that we are now inundated with images of friends, family and media darlings looking fantastic all the time on social media. And, their captions make us feel even worse: “Just woke up” or “No make-up” are like salt in the wounds of our insecurities and we wonder why we resemble a troll under a bridge in the morning when our friends somehow look gorgeous. Oh, the magic of an easy photo editing app!
Well, there’s a new movement afoot and I love it. Young, beautiful women (mostly) are posting side by side photos of themselves. The first photo is of them looking fabulous and the second one is taken from a bad angle or while they’re making an awful face. It seems unbelievable that the two photos are of the same person. And, I applaud these women for their bravery:
Their message is so needed right now when glamour shots and selfies abound. There is something so wonderful about these split-screen shots (sort of a backwards “before and after”) that is so healing for those of us who feel “less than”. No one is perfect. And, beautiful selfies are usually the result of a whole lot of hair and make-up, good lighting and camera angles, and probably some photo editing!
Now, if we only had an app that beautified our hearts as easily. Wouldn’t that be amazing? With a few clicks, we could erase any character flaws that keep us from serving the Lord fully. I’d be clicking that button multiple times a day! In these crazy days of social media, it’s easy to forget that our Father looks past all that surface stuff. He is unimpressed by physical beauty and instead looks at the state of our souls. And, there is no quick fix for that.
In closing, I will entertain you with some split-screen shots I received from my crazy family. Even the grandkids and cat got involved. DO try this at home. We laughed until we cried and it was a great lesson on how fruitless it is to focus on physical beauty.
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