I think about what is hidden or not visual in each appearance.
One challenge that I have sometimes when taking pics for my Style segment is
keeping my child away. If she is around I constantly have to ask to step away
for a while or preoccupy her with something else. Even then it gets to a point
where I have to convince her by first stopping the session and taking her pics(because
children want to do what you are doing...lol ). Sometimes, I have to crop her
out when taking a pic, so I have to position myself in a way that she will not
be seen. However, with just a smile and a "perfect" pose, you can
never really tell that all that is going on behind the scene.
In relation to this, I also think about appearances. It would
take an observant person to see the sadness or struggle behind a smile. If
today I see a successful person, I just see success. I would probably not able
to tell the effort behind the success unless the person tells me. Well, I'm not
saying, that there is always struggle, some smiles are true and some
backgrounds are just as calm and easy as
they appear. Nevertheless, do we ever think about such things when we compare
ourselves to others; when we measure our success and lifestyle to theirs; when
we want what others have? (Be careful what you wish for)
The other day we were talking with my photographer, about how
we admire and desire what others have, without thinking much about how they got
to their current situation. In
particular, we were discussing "beautiful" couples. Sometimes we
desire to have a relationship as great as so and so or a spouse as supportive
as so; but when we learn of their story would we be willing to go through the
same things, just to get there. Sometimes, if not all times, it does take real
effort and commitment to get to a particular point. Moreover, my strengths may not be your strengths and my
weaknesses may not be your weaknesses.
We were all made for different or
particular purposes and you cannot take up what is another person's. Scripture says
that God has a great plan for us and knows us individually, Jeremiah 29:11 ,a verse that can never
be over-emphasized. This is what may happen when we get absorbed in what is
going on in other people's lives; we lose focus. The minute we want what others
have and to be where they are, our focus shifts from where we are headed to
where they are or headed. So I may have started on my own with the objective and
passion to get to a particular destination, but midway, my focus shifts and my
direction changes. It is now no longer meeting the purpose that I have in life,
but measuring up to another person or fitting into a particular group.
It would have been more manageable to bump into a person who
is doing better or seems happier, but now with social media the exposure and
pressure, if we get caught up, is constant. The problem is that we can never be
like other people, because we were created to be us. We may never even feel
fulfilled, when we get where others are, because that is not our purpose. When
God created you He had a particular plan for you. "...Shall the clay say to him who forms it, 'What
are you making?' Or shall your handiwork say, 'He has no hands'?" Isaiah 45:9...If we are not careful, we may lose ourselves to what is happening
around us. The way I see it is, if each of us would seek the will of the Lord
over our lives, then we would realise that we are actually headed to the same
destination; that is Success. Success in the specific fields that each of us
has been called to. After all, God did create us and knows what is best and
what awaits us ahead.
I love this song "Oceans" by Hillsong United
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