Women and Flaws
[ Posted by Rebecca Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:45:22 GMT ]
I find it interesting that the second you say something negative about yourself people think you are insecure, hard on yourself, self-deprecating, or riddled with low self-esteem.
It seems as though it is unacceptable to be honest and open about your faults.
Newsflash. We all have flaws. I think to not discuss them is to do ourselves a disservice. Many times my conversations about my flaws have provided the means for those close to me to suggest ways I could overcome them. Rarely have these discussions not been beneficial.
There is one person on this planet who knows me better than anyone, and that one person is my counselor. She has declared that I am a person with confidence, and it was a long battle for me to get there. I wasn’t always happy with being myself, and at times my flaws did cause me to have a very negative view of myself. That is over now.
Now I have a balanced view of myself. I really like my strengths and I really value my personality. I am aware of my flaws, and I would like to improve in my flawed areas. But those flaws don’t bring me down. I’m ok being flawed. It’s just the way life is, and that’s fine. Besides, it gives me plenty of reasons to really need G-d every second of the day.
I think our culture is overly sensitive to this idea of being flawed. And honestly, some women do have self-esteem and security issues, and I do think it’s necessary to help those women see themselves more clearly. But I think we should consider what women say about their flaws against their behavior and other things we know about them before we write them off as insecure. Then we will know how to help them - show them a more balanced way of seeing themselves, or offer suggestions of improvement if that is what they truly seek.
