Cause I Love Your Smile
Hey Family! We meet yet again! This week has been a WEEK, but as usual, God always has a way of capping the end of the week off on the right note so that I can start Monday off by sharing with you all the lessons I have learned. I can only pray that each of you is blessed in some capacity when you read these posts. My desire is that everyone is blessed, motivated, and inspired. Let’s get to it.
One of my daughters and I were riding from the store the other day. She made the comment that she is now beginning to love her smile and she didn’t know why. My response, as true as it was, was a bit blunt. I told her that she might as well love it because she was stuck with it for the rest of her life. When I said it, I immediately cleaned it up. I explained to her that her smile was beautiful and that I was glad that she finally got to see what I saw. This statement was also true, I probably should have just led with that response in the first place. Nevertheless, she got my point. Her smile was indeed beautiful. I recall growing up, not liking my smile either. I hated it actually. I had a huge gap, my gums were black, and I was super self-conscious about them both. I had convinced myself that my smile was horrible. Even after the braces to close the gap, I was still not satisfied with my smile. It was not a physical problem that I had. It was a mental one. I had told myself for so long that my smile was not beautiful until I actually believed it.
I had family and friends growing up tell me that I was a pretty girl. But It never quite reached my head. It’s amazing how we can convince ourselves that we are not good enough, that we are not pretty or handsome, or that whatever it is we are trying to do won’t succeed. We talk ourselves right out of feeling good about ourselves. What if we made the effort to convince ourselves of the opposite? That we are beautiful, that the mark we are trying to make in this world will happen? If I could have grasped that mindset early on, maybe It wouldn’t have taken so long for me to see just how great I am. I mean right now, here in my 30s, I am just starting to see that God created me a bit quirky. I love it though. I love that I love books and that I can be a little eccentric. I love the fact that I am a dancing machine, but have no rhythm. I love the fact that learning new words is my thing. I am finally embracing myself. I am finally embracing my smile. Now, when I smile, it’s real. It’s genuine. Don’t misunderstand, I have bad days. I mean, who doesn’t? I have moments of doubt. Who doesn’t? I even find myself falling back into that low self-esteem mindset at times, but who doesn’t? The beauty of embracing yourself though is that you don’t have to stay in that rut. You don’t have to stay in that mindset. You can pull yourself out of it and keep it moving.
I really just told you all of my business, to say; embrace you. Embrace that smile. You are beautiful. Inside and out. Be who and what God has created you to be. Once you can do that, you can smile from within, and then that smile will transfer to the outside world. And if anyone hasn’t told you this today…..I LOVE YOUR SMILE!
