on mirrors…

I have been thinking this week about mirrors.

It started on Sunday with our pastor’s sermon. He talked about how easy it is to drift away from the Truth of God’s Word because we start comparing ourselves to the people around us instead of the Bible. Our version of “normal” starts to look very much like the standards shouted from the front of People magazine and not so much like the guidelines Jesus calmly spoke from the Sermon on the Mount.

“Look Better! Earn More! Be Confident! Be Like Her!” the magazines yell into my face, and after a while, I start to believe it. I consume media like it’s my last meal, slurping up big doses of “what she’s doing” and start to compare it to my life. Insecurity that I’m not as “grateful” as one person, and pride that I’m handling motherhood better than “that” person walks into my heart hand in hand, and the drift begins.

You see, I find myself looking in the wrong mirror, with the lenses of society’s standards clouding my vision, and the image that bounces back to me is airbrushed with lies. And honestly, most of the time, I don’t even realize it is happening. We get so used to seeing what we see…and it starts to look normal.

It’s like wearing glasses that are the wrong prescription. Not until you get to the eye doctor and she flips the little round lenses over your eyes that is the right prescription that you suddenly notice sharp edges and flourishes that you didn’t see there before.

Truth. That’s the mirror I crave.

We started reading the book of Luke this week, the beginning of an eight week journey through the New Testament as a church, and I found myself staring at the words of Jesus like it was the first time I had read them.

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6)

And the words of I Peter that I am studying with my Hello Mornings group leaped off the page to sear themselves under my eyelids,

“So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God.” (I Peter 2:1-3)

It’s a reminder to make sure that I’m looking into the right mirror, so that I can see clearly where I need to clean house in my life.

It’s a wakeup call that others will see that I’m different if I store up good things in my heart, which will then naturally overflow to my words and behavior.

It’s a warning that I had better watch who and what I’m comparing myself to, and make sure it is God, not culture.

Check out your mirror…what is it reflecting today?