Perspectives

The other day as I was getting ready in our beautifully decorated washroom, I noticed something strange about myself in our tilting mirror. It is a small mirror, and can be tilted up, down, left and right, I presume so that it can be adjusted to fit your height or get a better view of yourself.

It doesn't really make sense how this happened, because I am the tallest person in the house, but somehow the last person who used the mirror left it pointing up quite high, so that only the top of my head was visible in the mirror, and if I stretched to the tip of my toes, I could see my eyes, with a little more effort, my nose as well. For some reason, this made me feel a little small...

Have you ever felt this way? Maybe like you're just not big enough or good enough for the challenges of the day? Looking in the mirror did that to me!

Being the smart man that I am, my next course of action is obvious- I tilted the mirror down. Now, of course I could have tilted it straight towards my face, making everything appear normal, and myself as average size and height, but no; I took it a step further. If with one small tilt up, the mirror up could make me feel small... what happens if I tilt it a bit too far down? I am a giant! I am capable, I feel good and even look better.

The problem with mirrors is that they lie. The image we have of ourselves, taken from the brief visit in front of the mirror each morning (well, brief for us men anyway), is really nothing like what other see, and definitely does not reveal much about who we really are. At the fair, you find mirrors that make you thinner or wider or taller, and in a woman's purse you find a mirror that makes every blemish remarkably huge. But what is the truth?

The truth is that we should start each day with a totally different perspective. By all means, look in the mirror and fix yourself up; for others will make a judgment about you primarily by the way you look, but do not rate yourself by what you see in the mirror. Use a higher standard, a clearer picture...

Look at yourself through God's Perspective. You are His creation, His handiwork. He loves you, He cares about you, and wants to help you through the day. While He does know every fault you have and every sin you've committed, He sent Jesus to die on the Cross to pay for them, and is willing to forgive and overlook every one of them. His favor is better than the admiration of 1,000 people you will meet today, and His strength and wisdom can help you overcome any struggle you face.

In God's Mirror, only truth can be seen, and that is the perspective we need to face each day.