Picture Perfect... Slay!

The wrong lighting/camera setting gives the wrong picture, a wrong representation of what a person looks like or what a picture wants to portray. The wrong angle makes for an awkward picture … you would be silly to judge yourself based on that.

I prepare for weddings/events feeling fly… I have mini photo-shoots at home, and I’m slaying with my pose in those pictures, then I arrive the event and those unofficial photographers rush to give me a paparazzi moment, I usually don’t let them, but sometimes, I kind of get carried away by the attention, especially with the slayed stamp seal on me, choosing to forget they are just hustling men and not true paparazzi. When they bring those pictures, they look horrible, I quickly snatch them from the guys not because they are good enough to be paid for, but because I really can't let them move around with those unflattering pictures of me, exposing their flawed picture of me. No no!

At weddings, there’s the official professional wedding photographer and his team that have been carefully sourced out and contracted and there are the commercial/freelance photographers who find  their way in, and a whole ton of family and friends posed as amateur photographers with their cameras and phones with bad settings. Sometimes the pictures come out looking good, half decent but not as good as the professional ones would.

You can’t judge your looks by these other peoples pictures. Their camera is on the wrong setting, they get you from wrong angles and the lighting is ridiculous plus the scramble to get your printed pictures to you by the freelancers results in them bringing unflattering pictures where you’ve been so airbrushed you look like a blurry piece of human with no pores. Your look has been distorted by their cameras.

Don’t judge yourself through those lenses, there’s an official photographer and when you see his photo-book, the pictures are a far cry from what the others present to you. You’d see pictures of a particular pose taken by the different people around, but nothing comes close to the copy presented by the main guy with the contract to capture your day. Some of the amateurs may give you a picture that isn’t half bad…. But nothing trumps the original, well that’s if you’ve hired a well and trusted professional.

Any other person would have captured everything wrong, but Heavyrain Vendutti my official photographer for the evening got perfect shots of me. I am undeniably flawed, but God sees me in my imperfection and gets only perfect shots of me. He presents me picture perfect with His lens of love. Knowing that the one who reigns over all has this beautiful images of me, how can the world and it's opinion of me stop me? How can it stop you?

God is our well and trusted professional, if we chose to serve Him as our God, then we know we have the best man for the job, not a counterfeit. The bible, Gods word concerning you is the perfect lens to see yourself through. Others may see your reality, may see your struggles and judge you by them, but they mean nothing when you see what the real picture is. God says you’re perfect in his sight, He says He loves you. He says you are healed and forgiven. He says you’re the blessed of the Lord.

I saw this statement while reading on photography “Everybody, no matter how ugly they are, has a good (or at least better) looking side.”  You see, even if you don’t feel beautiful or handsome, no matter how ugly you feel, there’s a good side for a good photograph… Be glad, you have a good side… that’s the side God looks at you through; the angle He takes your portraits from and presents to the world in your photobook/album… your perfect angle Is the side of His perfect sacrifice, and that's an all-rounder.. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process.  Hebrews 10:14(MSG)

Seeing yourself through the lens of the wrong people is what brews unhealthy competition in us. Have you asked yourself… would you be happier or in a good place to exercise patience and trust in God if you weren’t seeing yourself through the lens of others? Imperfect and a failure is the picture they present to you when you’re not doing things in their pace. So what if Jack is married? So what if Mary’s business is booming? You are on your path and things are working out for you in a different pattern from how they worked out for the next person and in the end, its all for your ultimate good because God makes all things work together for your good and thinks good thoughts towards you to give you a future and an expected end.You would avoid that bad marriage if you're not trying to prove a point. You wouldn't make that bad decision just to get the latest iphone if you're not bothered about what your neighbor's got. You wouldn't be hooked on drugs if you weren't trying to show you can be a hard man too when your friends mocked you. You wouldn't leave the gospel fold just at the brink of your breakthrough to go secular if you're not looking at how that secular act who can't sing has blown in just a second while you've been there for a minute. You wouldn't care what they are saying, or who they are comparing you with.
'Opinion polls don't count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.' Luke 7:35(MSG) Opinion polls don’t count for much, do they? 

Step back for one second… smile into the lens of God, the main photographer and wait confidently for His picture in that situation, not the amateurs… tell yourself you’re in competition with no one. Believe it. Now do you feel half as bad about whatever situation as you did before?

God has a perfect picture of you in every situation you find yourself in. Just pick up His photo-book of you in His word and view yourself.

See yourself through the perfection of Gods lens. That lens that produces pictures of you as perfect, pictures of you being the beloved of the lord. Pictures of you having abundance, the rich and satisfying life God has for you. Pictures of you having good success, pictures of you being the head and not the tail. Pictures of you as an overcomer. Pictures of you right on time, in Gods time. Pictures of you on the right path, in the right place at the right time meeting the right people and doing the right things.

People would use the lens of condemnation to paint pictures of you. So what if you stole before? So what if you were a cheat?
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus... Romans 8:1(NLT)

Whose picture of you are you using as your display picture? That of the professional or the amateurs? It's your choice.