I sometimes lie to myself in the morning when I shuffle into the bathroom and gaze into the mirror to begin my day…

Ugh.

I’ve got to do something about this.

I need to get back in shape and lose 10 (no 20!!) pounds.

And freshen up my hair and my skin and my make-up and my clothes…and ME.

I look AWFUL!

I MISS my 20-year-old body.

I’ve got to do something…

About ME.

I wash my face and brush my teeth and pop my contacts into my eyes.

But then I look at my eyes.

Really look.

They look the same.

Still hazel-green with gold flecks and a bit of blue around the rim.

For a moment I peer at everything that lies beneath my eyes...

And I remember A LOT has happened these last 20+ years.

I graduated college and married my high school sweetheart and finished medical school and survived residency with about a million 30-hour overnight call shifts.

I birthed and nursed and continue to raise (well, keep alive) FIVE entire humans.

I visited my husband in drug rehab (twice) and said yes to new beginnings.

I moved a total of six times including a move to a new state 1,000 miles away from friends and family.

I enjoyed vacations and celebrated holidays and mourned the loss of pets and muddled through relationships and struggled financially…

Oh, right. That’s right.

My over-forty-year-old body is SUPPOSED to look different than my 20-year-old-body!

In fact, I’ve earned every wrinkle.

Every fresh gray hair.

Every stretch mark.

These adorable mis-matched saggy boobs.

Every tummy roll.

What if instead of focusing on what I’ve lost these last 20 years (like elastic skin and smooth thighs and perky breasts and my natural hair color)…I look at all I’ve gained???

How I’ve grown?

The memories I’ve made?

All the laughter?? Or tears?? Or even better, laughter through tears?

The incredible PEOPLE God has placed directly in my path?

How I’ve generally just LIVED this good, hard, ordinary life!?!

What if THAT’S what I see every morning in the mirror???

I think then I’ll remember I do, in fact, have to do something about ME…

I’ve got to LOVE me.

And you??

Take a look back at it all and remember…

You’ve got to LOVE you too.