I See My Mom in the Mirror

I am approaching a milestone birthday next month. Goodness! It seems just like a few days ago, I was celebrating a milestone birthday and here I am already to another one!

AND, lo and behold, I look in the mirror and I see my mom! I am starting to look like her more each day. That’s really not a bad thing, but a wake-up call thing that the young school girl left the building a long time ago!

Speaking of mirrors, I remember Michael Jackson’s hit song “I’m Looking at the Man in the Mirror”:

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror.
I’m asking him to change his ways.
And no message could have been any clearer.
If you want to make the world a better place.
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.”

Good words to live by – being honest about who we are and if there are character and attitude flaws, to change our ways. Instead of looking at the faults in others, to look inward at ourselves. I immediately prayed: “Lord, please make me a reflection of You! May others see You in me!”

Every morning we come face to face with ourselves in the mirror. That first glance can often shock us — our hair going every which way, eyes dazed, and faces with creases from a hard sleep! Yikes!

Mirrors are brutally honest. They don’t lie. They don’t hide the wrinkles, the flaws, and the signs of aging. They usually tell us to make some adjustments: comb your hair, put on a little make-up, or for men – shave that “5 am shadow”.

Mirrors are a good thing. We face the truth, make some changes, and feel a little better about facing the world.

But, this day, I am looking at me and asking God to make me a reflection of Jesus – which means more about the inside than the outside. To look with eyes wide-open at the character flaws and the lack of the Fruit of the Spirit in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that needs some adjustments.

James 1:23-24 says, “Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” That scripture implies we don’t want to seriously confront that “man or woman in the mirror”.

If we start our day with that first prayer of asking to reflect Jesus, we’ll start to see His character in us, along with His beautiful grace and love to a hurting world.

The best mirror for checking out ourselves is the perfect mirror of God’s Word. And the only perfect image is Jesus. From that perspective, we can daily examine ourselves in THAT mirror and ask the question: “Am I being all that God has called me to be? Am I allowing Him to mold me into His image?”

Instead of looking at the man in the mirror and asking him to change his ways, we look to our perfect Make-up and Shine-Up Artist (for inside and out perfection) to transform us into His reflection by filling us full of His light and His glory! Then we will reflect His love, His truthfulness, His joy, His forgiveness and mercy to others, His selflessness, His servitude. That’s the woman in the mirror I want to see and be! How about you?