WE all love looking at old photos don’t we? We show our set of old snaps to all and sundry, maybe trying to tell people we were once young and innocent and good looking! The worst is when someone looks at an old pic of you and says, “You looked so nice those days!”
Grrrrr, don’t I look nice anymore? But there are many who look better now than their old photos. They are more confident, have a determination in their eyes and a resolve in their chin. Time has changed their looks for the better.
Talk to these people and you will be surprised at the stories they tell. It was not ease and comfort that shaped their looks, it was not a trouble free path that brings a smile to their eyes, nay, it was difficulties and problems, trouble and hardship that chiseled those features.
Near where I live is a sculptor’s workshop. Very often when I pass by I see him chiseling the features of some famous character he is supposed to sculpt. His chisel is hard, and hits the marble with force; not for him a gentle touch, not for him, small nudges and touches. He hits with precision. The chips fall, and a face emerges.
And yet there are many of us who pray for a life of ease and comfort. Go into the shop of the sculptor again. He gets many orders from rich households. Pampered children who’s fathers want a statue of them, to place in the garden or elsewhere. They come to visit the sculptor and squeal with delight.
“Look father how handsome I look! How pretty I look!” The father looks at the sculptor and winks at him and the sculptor knows that a bonus is in store. All he has done is taken away the spoilt softness from their faces and given them square jaws and resolute chins.
But we don’t have to bribe the sculptor. We have to learn to allow the hard knocks of life shape us. We have to realize that the harder the knock the more we should turn our faces to the chisel, not just to enhance our looks, but to build character. It’s character that shapes us. Its character that reveals true beauty!
I don’t know what you are going through at present, whatever it is, face it like a block of marble, faces the master sculptor’s chisel. Watch the bits of laziness and failure fall off and then look in the mirror and see a determined, handsome or beautiful you. Old photos tell a lot about how you looked. I hope you are one of those who look better now..!
