Book by the Cover

We've all heard it before, "Never judge a book by its cover."  But let's be honest, we do.

I'm not going to lie, sometimes I pick up a bottle of wine because I like the font or pretty picture or artistic expression or even the country represented on the label.  Clearly I'm not a professional sommelier.  I don't always do this, mind you :)

And what about first impressions?  What about those, huh?


Do you size people up from your first encounter with them?


We all have.  We think, "I don't have anything in common with that person..."  And truth is, we don't, because we never discovered that we actually do have 17 things in common.  17 is a lot, but we never even got to 1 because we gave them the up and down look and assumed either we were better than them or they better than us.

I wear my black workout pants at least 6 out of 7 days a week.  I'll be honest, I put on my black leisure suit, I mean work out clothes, to motivate myself to hopefully get a workout in that day.  I don't wear them all day long, you know, because I do shower once in a while, but, if you happen to run into me on consecutive days, at random times, it's quite possible you'll see me in my black Adidas "mom" outfit and think: A, I only have one outfit in my life, B I'm super athletic and have the vitals of an Olympic athlete, C I never wash my clothes, D I'm smelly and unclean, E I'm sponsored by Adidas, F I'm color blind, G I'm CatWoman.

Any of those assumptions could very well be true, save maybe the color-blind part, clearly.

But seriously, aren't you tired?  Aren't you tired of being judged by your cover?  Aren't you exhausted?

I mean, we ALL have PUBLIC personas...that is, we clean up to some degree (even if it's a black on black workout leisure suit) when we take a step out our front doors.  I for sure brush my teeth and fill in my very faint eyebrows.  Sometimes I even put on mascara.

But when we compare our PRIVATE personas with other peoples' PUBLIC personas, we're pretty much toast.  I mean, seriously.  Before the truth was ever revealed that photos were "retouched" in magazines, I literally thought models were born perfect.  Jerks.




Now I know that if I had a make up artist, hair stylist, camera man and photo "retoucher", I'd be the hottest girl on my block, too.  Heck, the video above shows you that we could all do the SI Swimsuit Issue.  Crop, crop, crop.

What is my point?  Have you ever wished people knew you for who you really are inside?  Do you long to be known for your heart and not for what you do?  Are you tired of comparing yourself to every one else who totally rocks, believing the lie that you don't totally rock, as well?

Well guess what?!  You were designed with extraordinary in mind!  And you aren't the only one!  God made each and every one of us in His image.  This may be difficult for some to believe as we look around at the PUBLIC personas and COVERS that some portray.  Especially the crunchy, crusty, creepy, cranky ones.  Or the ones that come across without a flaw.

We all need work.  We all have reasons for the way we live, react, treat others.  They are not excuses.  There is no excuse for the behavior I am currently reading about in "Half the Sky" by Kristof and WuDunn.  If you think there are excuses for treating others poorly because we've experienced pain or disappointment, then I could treat everyone like crap because I lost my baby.  I'm sorry, that doesn't hold weight.  It absolutely broke my heart, but it doesn't give me an excuse to give up on life, especially because I'm still here, for whatever reason God sees fit, or to be a cranky, crusty woman with a short fuse.

Again, what is my point?  Well, when I was writing up a "bio" for myself for my non-profit organization, here's what I came up with:

• Optimistic, maybe to a fault, Adrienne took to heart the words of her Kindergarten teacher, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” and “Do to others what you would want them to do to you.”  Some say everything we ever needed to know we learned in Kindergarten.  Who knows?  But these two principles, when it comes to women, are the underlying force behind Adrienne’s desire to build bridges between women as we celebrate the uniqueness with which we were created.  A hopeful peacemaker and team player, Adrienne believes as we each begin to walk with confidence in the gifts and strengths we were given, comparison will no longer be the goal but instead women coming together, working alongside one another, living a story meant to be told, and radically changing the world in which we all live.

Not sure it's the one I'll use, but it's my heart.  A middle-child peacemaker who truly believes we can all just get along.  

As we head into this weekend, the most powerful of weekends that's ever taken place in the Universe, I am grateful that Jesus did what He did so when I get caught up in the lies of daily living, I can look to Him and hope for an eternal picture that is much bigger and tells a much more profound story than the one I often find myself in.  

Our lives may not seem extraordinary in the day to day, but if we open the pages of our stories, the books that we each represent, we'll find God writing something quite magnificent in each of us, for His glory.

However, this truth remains:  it's the loss of the other person who just sizes you up by your Cover.