As adults, we are rarely asked what it is we like about
ourselves. Maybe in an interview
or something, you are asked about your strengths or most significant
accomplishment, or something like that, but that’s not necessarily what you
like about yourself. When, since
maybe an essay in 5th grade, have you had to think about this?
I’ve been thinking about it for like the past week or
so. But not just what I like about
myself, but love about myself.
That seems like it should be an easy answer. It’s not.
I signed up for a “Secret Subject Swap” with 17 other
bloggers – we sent in writing prompts which were then distributed to all participants by some mechanism known only to the host/organizer, Karen, at Baking in a Tornado. Today is the day we all reveal our topics and posts. Nothing like a deadline to get me
putting on another pot of coffee.
My “secret subject” was submitted by the Mommy Ref, a
blogger who has no qualms about beating her kids in a good game of CandyLand.
(Come on, it’s good for them!)
What I love about myself is… and it isn’t because…
I’m athletic.
I’m smart. I’m active. I’m talented – I can sing and act.
Okay, those aren’t my answers. I borrowed them from my kids. I told you, I couldn’t come up with anything so I asked the
folks who inspire and spark a lot of my ideas, whether it be a hat that looks
like a panda bear, the notion to deep fry cake (yumm, delicious!) or the intent
to be a calmer, more positive self.
After I’ve been walking around for the past week trying to think of
something I love about myself, they each answered in less than 30 seconds
flat. I asked them to come up with
an answer for me. They mentioned
something about having curly hair and a loud voice, then went outside to see who
could jump on the pogo stick the longest.
I think a normal answer would highlight some attribute
about yourself that you appreciate but not for the most obvious reason. (My body, although its far from being a
shining example of physical fitness.)
But at some level, isn’t it about appreciating your own
imperfections? We are inclined to
look for the most perfect thing and hold that up as what we love about
ourselves. But this prompt
suggests, at least the way I read it, that we are allowed to love that factor,
that personality trait that is still rough around the edges. It gives us the freedom to say, yeah, I
know I’m loud and impatient, but I love being a mom anyway. I know that my house is a mess most of
the time and you trip over shoes whenever you enter, but I love the home that
it is anyway. I know my kids are
rambunctious and sometimes hard-headed, but they are also sweet and caring and
funny and smart and I really do love them anyway.
So my answer?
What I love about myself is that I am myself and it isn’t
because I’m exactly who I want to be or exactly how I wish I was, but because
I’m a work in progress.
I often
want to be somehow different, somehow better, somehow more than I am. But I am who God intended me to be, at
this moment, at this time, for His reasons. I have to trust that although I may sometimes wish I was
something else, in His divine wisdom, I am my own unique self for some
reason. And for that, I love
myself.
* Visit www.bakinginatornado.com for the other Secret Subject posts (and recipes for cookies with lots of chocolate and sugar) *
