AllForTheAlmighty

אָהַב. Ahava. The Hebrew word for love. "The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31. A few weeks ago, I helped a friend teach a painting class for elementary school children, and the kids were told to paint something that reminds them of love. At the end of the class each kid told us what their paintings were about. Some were funny, and some kind of surprised me. Some paintings in particular really stood out to me. One little girl, painted two cats hugging. She said "These cats love each other because they are best friends.". Another little girl painted the moon, with a smiley face on it. She told me that when you love someone, you can always see it. Even in daytime. A (4 year old!) little boy painted himself with two other people. He told me that love is when his dad gives him and 'mommy' a hug or a 'kissy' when he comes home from work. The last two girls painted a cross, and

I realized something this afternoon as I looked in the mirror. Almost every day, for years, I've been thinking the same type of thoughts whenever I look at my reflection. Thoughts like, "I'll be beautiful when I lose ___ pounds. ", "I won't look good if I don't straighten my hair.", "if I don't get a nose job someday, my nose will always make me look like a boy ." , "I'll never be attractive if I don't get rid of my acne.", "maybe, I'll be more successful if I'm skinny ." , "B ecause of my baby-face, no one will take me seriously unless I put some make up on ." , "Because of ______ no one will ever want to marry me." Sometimes I push the thoughts aside, but many times...they weigh heavily on me throughout the day; damaging my self esteem a lot. Today I thought hard about it and asked myself a new question: "What if I said the horrible things that I keep