Hi hi,
TALES BY THE DAYTIME
I have bow legs which I love. But it took me many years to accept them o, hmm. I didn't know my legs were slightly bowed until one afternoon in my final year in secondary school when we had to wait outside our apartment (upon returning home from school) for some hours because we couldn't find the key to enter inside. We used to have a long bench at the front of our house then, so Shade, my sister, and I sat on it. I stretched out my legs and then discovered my knees were not touching themselves. I was afraid. 'What is wrong with my legs?' I asked rhetorically.
So I asked my sister to stretch out her leg and let me see if her knees met, they did. So why were mine not meeting? My sister replied if I didn't know I had bow legs. Bow legs? I never knew. And this knowledge bothered me for years. I would check my legs over and over again and rant over why they were not straight like some peoples' legs. Anytime we took any photos, my main point of scrutiny was my legs. But later I accepted them and appreciated them and still do.
Now my teeth. I have big upper teeth and they are slightly pointed too. Now their being pointed and big was my fault. I started folding in my lower lip over my lower teeth while holding the lip in place with my upper teeth in Primary 4. I thought it was a style, I don't know where I got that idea from o--children with their different funny ideas. I just discovered that my teeth were getting bigger and bigger and I couldn't understand why. It wasn't until Primary 6 when my friend, Lara, told me what was making my upper set of teeth increase in size and pointed was the habit I described above.
When she told me, I blushed a little, but I appreciated her and stopped that naughty 'style'. Believe me, that brought the end to the extravagant growth of my upper teeth. Looking back, I knew God used her to caution me in time before my teeth entered the Guiness Book of Record.
But these big teeth also shook me a little so that anytime I was laughing in public and I remembered that my teeth were big and pointed, I would curtail the laughter. Many times when I smiled in those days, they were toothless smiles because I was very conscious of my 'big' teeth until one afternoon during choir rehearseals on campus.
A sister told me, 'You, you'll be smiling with your teeth closed, open your teeth and smile well'. I heeded to her advice and I started to dare toothy smiles :) . And then I would check my teeth in the mirror and tell myself, 'But, oh my upper teeth are a bit big and pointed, they are not bad. They are still beautiful.' I would check my smiles in the mirror too and would nod at how beautiful they were. So I stopped restraining my smiles and literally became a smiler.
One day in choir when we were sending forth some brethren, a brother commented on my smiles. He said they were beautiful and there is this joy they bring to whoever saw them and so I should keep smiling because my smiles were blessing people. In my heart, I was like wow, God bless this sister that encouraged me to accept myself o.
Why did I have to tell these tales? It's because I know there are many people especially ladies (I'm a woman so I know what I'm talking about) who are struggling with accepting one part of their bodies or the other which is not 'perfect' enough. I hope my stories encourage you to accept yourself and to know that you are beautiful in spite of those seeming flaws.
Hugs with lots of love from me,
Precious AY
TALES BY THE DAYTIME
I have bow legs which I love. But it took me many years to accept them o, hmm. I didn't know my legs were slightly bowed until one afternoon in my final year in secondary school when we had to wait outside our apartment (upon returning home from school) for some hours because we couldn't find the key to enter inside. We used to have a long bench at the front of our house then, so Shade, my sister, and I sat on it. I stretched out my legs and then discovered my knees were not touching themselves. I was afraid. 'What is wrong with my legs?' I asked rhetorically.
So I asked my sister to stretch out her leg and let me see if her knees met, they did. So why were mine not meeting? My sister replied if I didn't know I had bow legs. Bow legs? I never knew. And this knowledge bothered me for years. I would check my legs over and over again and rant over why they were not straight like some peoples' legs. Anytime we took any photos, my main point of scrutiny was my legs. But later I accepted them and appreciated them and still do.
Now my teeth. I have big upper teeth and they are slightly pointed too. Now their being pointed and big was my fault. I started folding in my lower lip over my lower teeth while holding the lip in place with my upper teeth in Primary 4. I thought it was a style, I don't know where I got that idea from o--children with their different funny ideas. I just discovered that my teeth were getting bigger and bigger and I couldn't understand why. It wasn't until Primary 6 when my friend, Lara, told me what was making my upper set of teeth increase in size and pointed was the habit I described above.
When she told me, I blushed a little, but I appreciated her and stopped that naughty 'style'. Believe me, that brought the end to the extravagant growth of my upper teeth. Looking back, I knew God used her to caution me in time before my teeth entered the Guiness Book of Record.
But these big teeth also shook me a little so that anytime I was laughing in public and I remembered that my teeth were big and pointed, I would curtail the laughter. Many times when I smiled in those days, they were toothless smiles because I was very conscious of my 'big' teeth until one afternoon during choir rehearseals on campus.
A sister told me, 'You, you'll be smiling with your teeth closed, open your teeth and smile well'. I heeded to her advice and I started to dare toothy smiles :) . And then I would check my teeth in the mirror and tell myself, 'But, oh my upper teeth are a bit big and pointed, they are not bad. They are still beautiful.' I would check my smiles in the mirror too and would nod at how beautiful they were. So I stopped restraining my smiles and literally became a smiler.
One day in choir when we were sending forth some brethren, a brother commented on my smiles. He said they were beautiful and there is this joy they bring to whoever saw them and so I should keep smiling because my smiles were blessing people. In my heart, I was like wow, God bless this sister that encouraged me to accept myself o.
Why did I have to tell these tales? It's because I know there are many people especially ladies (I'm a woman so I know what I'm talking about) who are struggling with accepting one part of their bodies or the other which is not 'perfect' enough. I hope my stories encourage you to accept yourself and to know that you are beautiful in spite of those seeming flaws.
Hugs with lots of love from me,
Precious AY
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