We are often our own worst critics aren’t we? So many times I look in the mirror and that negative tape we all know so well starts playing. It’s a constant battle to shut it off and remind yourself that a quiet voice in your head has absolutely no power over you. But it’s not only in the mirror that this deceptive bully tries to assert authority, we hear it through comparison when another beautiful woman walks by and we get bombarded while flipping through our photo albums.

I recently wrote an article about how in this digital age we often are so quick to delete precious memories of ourselves with our children because we find them unflattering. You can read “Just Snap the Photo, Mama” in its entirety here if you like. Well, the other day this lesson became very real to me.

I often write about the type of person I want to become, hoping that not only will I grow from it but others will find encouragement themselves. And some of those things are harder to apply to my own life than I’d like to admit. Such is the case when last Saturday our little family decided to do something fun and take the kids to the splash pad.

Our four-year-old had been begging to get into the water for the summer and it was the first experience for our baby boy. Because of this, I felt the need to capture the sweet moment. I snapped a few photos of my kids, my husband and even asked him to capture me. I’m still trying to get to know my new postpartum body and I’m definitely not as comfortable in it as I’d like to be. As you can imagine, this feeling only intensifies in a bathing suit.

Nevertheless, I had him take the photo. Besides, I had just written a blog article encouraging other moms to do so. Shouldn’t I follow my own advice? Everything was fine and dandy until I flipped through the pictures later.

I hated what I saw.

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