Every morning, (well, the mornings that I actually put on makeup) I use a handheld mirror to look at myself up close. This is usually my last step. I’ve put on the foundation and color and plucked and curled and touched-up, and when I think I’ve gotten everything just as it should be, I pick up my small purple mirror, and I check my face one last time.
Honestly, it is often just a quick glance – one final look before I walk out the door.
But something that I stopped noticing quite a while back is that the mirror is broken. I can’t even remember how many years ago it fell off the bathroom counter and shattered. No matter what they say about broken mirrors and bad luck, I was relieved that the pieces hadn’t fallen out of the frame and that the broken shards were large enough to still use.
It seems a little ridiculous when I think about it.
The last image of my face (my final perspective of myself) before walking out the door every day is broken, distorted and very much unlike what the mirror says.
But I think I might be guilty of this in other areas of my life. Perhaps we all are.
We don’t just use broken mirrors for our faces. We let broken mirrors have the final say about our parenting, about our marriages, about our circumstances.
And we forget.
We forget that sometimes the way that we see things isn’t a true reflection of the way that they really are. We forget that there is only one way to see ourselves that isn’t distorted or confused.
It is only when we ask the Father for a chance to see things through His eyes that we will stop accepting brokenness as truth…because the way that He sees us and our situations is whole and complete and the only perspective worth trusting.
He says you’re a great mom. He says you’re a hard working dad. He says your marriage isn’t finished. He says you’re not alone. He says you’re not unusable. He says you’re not unlovable. He says your circumstances won’t always be this way. He says that your best is good enough. He says you are not defeated. He says that you’re not a failure.
Today, I’m going to buy myself a new mirror. I’m going to finally throw away the one that was so easy to pick up and use daily, and then, I’m going to stop and think about all of the other broken mirrors that I have placed around my life – and I’m going to throw those away too.
Because I have been created in the image of God – and today, I will choose to see myself through Heaven’s eyes.
