My husband and I were on a walk the other night, trying to stay healthy and fight off the effects of time and gravity when we stumbled upon a very strange looking bug. It was an albino cockroach, and it was actually really cool. Now I hate cockroaches, to be honest – I loathe them and will kill them any chance I get. They are gross, disgusting, disease carrying, creepy crawlies, but this one was almost … ..pretty, it “glistened” under the street light and had an opal look to it.
Acting like most men do, (or boys I should say) my husband kicks it, he said that it was to get it closer into the light for a better look, but it went flying somewhere into the dark and we lost it. The albino cockroach was gone.
I began thinking, how could I find something so disgusting fascinating and even pretty? How beauty could be found anywhere even in a cockroach. I remembered a conversation I had with sister regarding what is beauty is and maybe that it is not really in the “eye” of the beholder, but how the beholder approaches what they are looking at. I could have easily said “yew a cockroach” and made my husband step on it, but instead I approached it with a sense of wonder.
So many times focus on our own fears, failures, and shortfalls. We lie to ourselves about the way others see us. We are so insecure that we focus only on our negatives and over look all the positives. It does not matter if we have 100 positives and only 1 negative, we will fixate on the 1 negative. One of my best friends stated it correctly when she said “insecurity is the devils playground”.
So how do we get over our own insecurities and how to we find the beauty in others? I think that love is the answer. I know it sounds cheesy, like that 1970’s song, named “Love is the Answer” but really think about it. If you accept and love yourself for who you really are, shortfalls and all, you will begin see yourself differently. If you extend that same love and acceptance to others you will begin to see them in a different light as well.
I want to see myself the way God sees me and I want to see others the way God sees them. God made us all, every nationality, every skin color, hair type, eye color, size, shape, every defect, and every personality. He tells us over and over again how wonderfully made and “beautiful” we are and all we have to do is believe him.
So, if you see an albino cockroach, please don’t step on him.
