The moment I didn't recognize myself.

There are 300 things I could talk about in this blog. I'll spare you the 299 other things flowing through my head and share a picture with you.

My friend took this last week. We were on a trip to Jamaica with 24 friends. We have gone several times, this was our fifth trip. This picture freaks me out because I genuinely did not know that it was me. Is this me? Is that my body? Is that my back? Because for as long as I can remember, I have cropped my backside out of photos and carefully photoshopped unflattering body shots of myself because I was so unhappy with my body. And this is the very reason that I don't have an old picture to compare to the one below:

Some of you are nodding your head in agreement. Some of you are thinking about those pictures you used to post to Facebook that you took of yourself in the bathroom mirror. You know the ones, just above your head to make your face look thinner and your body disappear into perspective.

What are we DOING to ourselves?

Do you realize that you are your own worst critic? Or that 99.9% of us see a seriously skewed version of ourselves? I hate the term "selfies". I hate Facebook albums filled with pictures of you, over and over again. It's like a cry to the social media world of "Am I acceptable? Do you think I am beautiful?" and it's the hope that someone, just one person (hopefully that guy that we like) will comment and affirm that yes, in fact, we ARE acceptable.

Do you see how screwed up this is?

No one but God gets to determine your value. Did you read that? I think you need to hear it again. No one but God gets to determine your value.

I remembered that today as I was working out. I thought about it today because I have seen so many people lose weight and then give up. I ran it through my mind today because I have thought about giving up. Because this is HARD. And it will take forever.

But the alternative is to give in to the lie that I am not worth it. If I believe that, I quit. But if I believe God, I fight.

So freaking fight, would you? Fight for yourself.  And quit letting other people decide your value. I'm in if you are.

Also, as a favor to me, enough with the selfies.

-Liz