Loving Myself

By Janis Rodgers

See this picture? A wonderful friend of mine posted it on social media today and my first thought was “Look at how big my arm is. I shouldn’t have got in that picture.”

Isn’t that sad? How many times have you chosen to not get into a picture to memorialize an event or experience? If you are like most moms, this is probably something you do quite frequently. As a mom, we tend to take the pictures, rather than be in them. You are going to look back someday and realize that you missed out, however.

Back to this picture. What you don’t see is that my daughters and I drove 2 hours each way and spent 11 hours at a dance competition to watch a dance team compete that they both had spent 9 years on.

What you don’t see is that sweet little girl in that picture who also happens to attend the elementary school I work at and has since kindergarten. She stayed at my house last summer while her mom worked and her family is like my own.

What you don’t see are all the hugs and love that we received and we gave to dancers, moms, and teachers that we hadn’t seen in a year.

What you don’t see are the relationships that were renewed and the spirits that were soothed by spending time with this “family”.

When my friend said, “Ya’ll get together. Let’s take a picture,” I could have stayed at the side and let my beautiful daughters be in the picture without me, but I was feeling so loved and good that I had let down my guard and got in it. And my smile shows how glad I was that I did.

Love yourself moms. Show yourself grace over big arms. Show yourself grace when your muffin top is blowing up. Those big arms of mine have hugged and loved dozens of people. My muffin top was where I created three beautiful children.

So for today, I love you, Janis. You are an amazing mom, friend, wife, daughter, sister, and child of God who keeps trying to do better. You may mess up, but you get back up, apologize, and try again. I am proud of that and of you.