Queen of Ordinary Feeling Nutty for Photo – March 8, 2014

I really hate having my picture taken.  Maybe that’s why I’m always the one behind the camera.

I recently learned something valuable about personal photographs, though.  My mom and dad are celebrating 63 years of marriage today.  What do you give someone with that kind of blessing?  I ended up collecting all the photographs I could muster of the two of them before they got married and over the course of those 63 years.

My mother is a beautiful woman.  She truly is.  She looked like a movie star when she was young and had a voice like an angel.  At 80 years old, she is still beautiful, but she refuses to smile for pictures. I think she worries too much about looking older. This makes her look older, more worn out, and sadder than she does in real life.  The best photos I have of her are the candid shots I got when she was laughing or goofing off with my dad.

As Christians, aren’t we supposed to reflect the “joy of the Lord” and actually have it operating in our lives?  A smile goes a long way toward opening the door of communication between people.  If we can truly have that kind of joy that radiates out of us, people will be drawn to it.

My dad, on the other hand, has always felt like he was a handsome guy, although he has a very prominent nose. He is always joking around, or goofing off to get a laugh out of somebody. Almost every single picture I came up with of him showed a big smile or a silly face he was making on purpose for the photo.  He looks great in all of his photos.

My lesson is this:  We are what we are.  Everyone knows what we look like if they are part of our lives.  Neither the clothes we have on, the hairstyle, nor the jewelry can come close to making us look as good in a photograph as a genuine smile.

And if you really don’t want your picture taken for some reason, a silly face will go a long way to making other people smile when they look at the picture.  The next time someone wants to snap your picture, smile from the inside out – or go with the flow and give them a nutty expression.  Either one will do.