I think there are a lot of us that do this. We look into our bathroom or bedroom mirror and we see a stranger. When I say stranger, I mean that we look into the mirror and we overlook what we really look like and try to envision this stranger standing there. A stranger that we mentally change for the purpose of trying to improve or wishing to improve on the imperfections that make us who we really are.

How many times have you looked at yourself in the mirror and found something you just felt needed to be changed ?

The scar on your face, too many freckles, too deep dimples, crooked nose, gray hair, uneven teeth, flappy ears, cleft in your chin, and many other physical attributes that you yourself find fault with.

Perhaps it's a full length mirror and you notice flab on your sides, chicken legs, pot belly, very little muscle, scars, stretch marks, moles, and many other things.

Some of those things listed above you can change like losing weight and dying your hair another color. I guess there could be extremes when it comes to losing or lightening your freckles and having moles removed, but why do we do this to ourselves?

What is it about us that we feel like we can't be the best person we are without having to worry about cosmetics and attributes? Why is that we find some of the characteristics that were passed onto us through family genes, embarrassing or unappealing ?

Society

All of us are familiar with the Hollywood ideals of what a person should look like. Actors and actresses are constantly trying to improve their image by starving themselves, plastic surgery, and glossing their photos so people don't see the hairy mole on their lip or the freckles on their faces. If their lips are too thin, fill them with botox. If their hair line is receding, pay a ton on money for hair plugs and what not. If they have a belly bulge or flappy arm skin, run and get a plastic surgeon to do a little nip and tuck here and there. And Heaven help them if they are showing their true age, that's where face lifts and God knows what else happens to create and conform to the Hollywood standards of how and what someone should look like.

These standards are viewed by our children, more so our daughters. They see these actresses doing crazy and wild things to maintain this personal persona of beauty and style. Our kids look in the mirror and don't see that actresses face staring back at them, they see their own and they aren't happy with it. So that adorable daughter you have with the cute little button nose is now viewing herself differently. That cute button nose that has passed from generation to generation isn't so great to them anymore. Maybe it needs to be longer or rounded more. Whatever it is , it changes your beautiful daughter into a mad scientist trying to create a person or stranger that doesn't and can't exist.

Your kids also don't realize that these people have acne. They don't know that the photos were changed to hide those and so they then become obsessed with trying to figure out why that person they idolize doesn't have zits.

Our kids aren't the only ones who are constantly trying to change things about themselves. The television is flooded with women who have near perfect plastic shapes and obviously have never had children. We look at some of these women and can't help but to compare ourselves to them. Obesity is bad, but starvation is worse. I can't see how being a stick figure with balloons on your chest is attractive.

There is nothing wrong with aging. Yes we all want to look young, but we all age. You can't stop it with no amount of plastic surgery or botox.

Outcast Island

Imagine what it would be like if we all had to conform to a certain set of standards about our personal attributes. Imagine that a certain group in society said that in-order to stay on this land everyone had to have the same hair color, facial features with no blemishes, no scars or stretch marks, and certain type of body mass.

There are a couple of problems with this.

One is that 99% of us would be in outcast island because we all have what might be considered flaws. Another would be that the society that thinks it is perfect,will find another way to change because there will always be some type of imperfection in people and that would send more to the island. The worse part is that if we all conformed and changed the things about us that make us uniquely different ,we would all be the exact same. If God wanted us to be that way, He would have made us that way to begin with.

Embrace your differences

All of us are different. There are things that we may want to change about ourselves when we look in the mirror. But embrace the things about yourself that make you who you are.

Aging doesn't make you less attractive, it shows your wisdom and strength. Gray hair is a natural part of getting older. Wear it with pride.

Yea, has you get older things aren't in the same place they were before. Plastic surgery isn't the answer. God created a process for life and that is one of the processes.

Freckles and moles and dimples, they are a part of what makes your physical appearance unique and beautiful.

Stretch marks and scars, those are badges of honor. Takes special women to carry and deliver beautiful little people into this world, to raise and love them. Scars are a medal of honor so to speak, you lived and survived and you should be proud of who you are.

Those little things that have been passed down from one generation to the next and you inherited them, be proud because you display the difference in your family and a strangers.

It is our imperfections that make us different from everyone else. They tell a story and it is a story that you should be proud of. When you look in the mirror and decide to start taking yourself apart and create someone else or a stranger, remember that it's your imperfections that make perfection in God's eyes. He created you to be different and those differences are seen in many different ways.