Where's Mom??!??

Monday night, I had a sweet lady here for my Power Palette Layout Class. In less than 4 hours, we had 21 album pages planned and layed out! The photos were family pictures from January through April 2008. One things we both noticed: there was not one picture of this wonderful woman! Plenty of pictures, of course, of her precious children, husband, and other family members. But none of her.


As moms, we often tend to be the photo-taker. That means that no one is taking pictures of us. And, honestly, I know many of us prefer it that way! While we love to take pictures, we don't like our picture taken. We are always concerned with how our hair looks, if we have makeup on or not, how much we weigh, what we are wearing, etc. Well, at least that is what is always going through my mind!


I would like to challenge us moms, or other camera-shy individuals, to be a little less self-focused. Think about those photos from today, and how they will be viewed years from now. Your absence will be noticed! You will be missed. Years from now, you won't care about how you looked... and you might even look back and say, "Hey, I actually looked pretty good, then!" Your children and other loved ones will want to see you, as they remember you. You are a vital part of their lives today; they will want to see you in photos tomorrow.

I have been working on filling in the gaps in my scrapbooks. Most recently, I have been working on my 2004 family album. It was fun to see this page from Jacob's 1st birthday! Especially since my baby is about to turn 6 next month! This is one of those pictures that I can now look back on and appreciate. I am glad we took it. I am glad we all know that I attended this event!

But what is interesting, is that when I turn the page, I see my hair all chopped off. And I remember.

I felt really bad about my appearance then. I had been in a car accident about 10 months before, and a neck injury from another car accident in 1999 had been aggravated. So in 2004 I had two steroid injections in my neck. I had gained a lot of weight. I was sick of my hair and ready for a change. I was also a little depressed. So I had my hair cut.

This photo was taken a few weeks later. I had the pleasure to see Beth Moore live in Colorado Springs with some of my closest, dearest friends. This was right after I had moved 90 miles away from these dear ladies. How many times do we forget to take photos of ourselves with our friends? It is so easy to take those times for granted. But we never know where we might end up in the future. Having this photo brings back a great memory of sweet fellowship!

Now, I don't like my hair in the picture with my friends at all. I was glad at the time to get it all cut off, but never really liked it. I still felt fat and ugly.... However, looking back, I realized a couple things. One, is never to cut my hair when I am feeling depressed! I will regret it! I also realized, that despite how I felt at the time, I didn't really look as bad as I thought I did... in either picture. And having those pictures today is important to me and my family.

How many times do you choose "not to attend an event" by not having your photo taken? Will your family see your precious face when they look back at family photos? I have a challenge for you. Hand someone else the camera... and smile!