Imagine this: You’re having a nice time with your friends, you’re out at a concert, you’re hearing an artist that you LOVE and you’ve been looking forward to it for - forever. You and your friends are having a blast. You guys are enjoying the show, and you’re taking videos and snapping pictures like crazy. You want everyone to join in on this amazing experience with you. After the show is over, you go home. You lay in your bed, your ears still ringing from the loudspeakers, but you’re happy. You start to go through your pictures and your heart sinks. You don’t look as good as thought you did. You don’t look as good as you felt. Immediately, you roll your eyes. All the joy from that incredible experience has faded. You start thinking about how you’re never wearing that outfit again. You start to point out all the places you think you look fat, and wonder, why you're nose, looks big, and your eyes look lopsided. There’s no way you’re sharing those pictures now.

Now imagine this: Next time you go to a show, you’re a little more reserved. You don’t want to just smile and have fun- instead, you’re worrying about what you look like, and how your outfit looks on you. All your pictures have to be posed just right, and you end up missing some of a great night because of your insecurities.

But why? Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we think that we have to be perfect all the time?

In a way it’s biblical to strive for “perfection” We are supposed to want to be like Jesus, who was perfect. But the kind of perfection that Jesus was/is is nothing like society’s definition of perfection. We’re so obsessed with our looks in our society, but apparently, God doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal, here’s what the bible has to say about what Jesus looked like: “There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.” (Isaiah 53:2) Basically, Jesus was not exactly the kind to stand out in a crowd, definitely not the kind of guy you expected to be the son of God. But He is.

Jesus’ perfection was because everything about Him was holy and pure. He never had a bad or selfish intention in His whole life. But our view of perfection has little to do with what’s inside and everything to do with how we appear.

When we’re so caught up in our appearance it sucks the fun and enjoyment out of everything. When we see pictures of ourselves that aren’t necessarily the most flattering all we can focus on is how bad we look and everything we want to change about ourselves instead of stopping to remember the moment that the photo was taken in. Maybe you were sitting in a weird way because you and all your friends were squeezed on a couch so that you could all fit, and someone told a joke right as the camera was about to go off. That moment is a fun and sweet moment, and because all you can think about is your outward appearance you’ve practically forgotten it. You banish the picture and beg all your friends not to post it anywhere. But why? Why do we have to let our insecurities and idea of perfection ruin our moments and memories?

Oh- wait… We don’t!

We’re all buying into the idea that to be beautiful is to always look like a picture straight out of a magazine. But that’s just not true. These days, the pictures in magazines don’t even actually look like the people who modeled them because of all the photoshop and editing.

To be beautiful you just have to be. You have to love, and you have to be able to just enjoy a moment. It’s beautiful to be free, to be vulnerable, to be kind, to be happy, to be loving and caring. It’s beautiful to be more in love with moments than the pictures that come from them. Who cares if you don’t always look like a million bucks, if you feel like a million bucks then what does it matter? It really doesn’t. Stop letting your insecurities ruin life’s greatest moments. You’re the only one who’s missing out.