A Look in the Mirror

     I don't know about you but 95% of the time mirrors are my least favorite objects on the face of the earth. Scratch that, least favorite object in the entire universe! Why? Simple. It shows me all of my flaws. Some days I look in the mirror and think, "Hey look at that, one gigantic flaw!" or "How can so many flaws be found on such a small person?" The truth is, if I never had to look in a mirror again I would be perfectly happy.
     The funny thing is that I spend a lot of time looking in a mirror or something that reflects my image. I find myself staring into the thin mirrors found on our jewelry spinners at work, computers, my phone, glass, TVs, etc. With most glances into a reflective surface the immediate thought in my head is "Ew." And I know that I am not the only one who has this problem. I'm not the only one who looks in the mirror and sees a ton of flaws like that I'm fat, some parts of my body are disproportionate, my arms are red and look splotchy, my face is broken out almost all the time, my face is red and splotchy 90% of the time and no amount of make up can cover that up, my teeth aren't perfect, one eye is usually squint-ier that the other (especially in pictures), clothes don't fit me right, etc., etc., etc. Is is sad that that's the short list of flaws that I see in the mirror? But I believe that even the most confident of people have some sort of list of flaws that they notice in the mirror. And every time we run through this list in our heads our Heavenly Father is shaking His head at us and saying "Don't you realize that I created you perfectly?" But we are way too busy adding to the list of flaws to hear him. I am 100% guilty of doing this, in fact I can promise you that I thought of all of my flaws this morning while getting ready for school.
     This post makes me think of a lesson that we do every year at The Landing. For those of you who don't know what The Landing is, it is a Celebrate Recovery ministry for teens. We are in year 4 and I've been a part of it since the beginning and have the privilege of  being a student leader there. Anyway, every year we bring out my full length mirror and write stereo types and adjectives that people may think of when they look in the mirror sort of like the picture below.

Ugly, Fat, Used, etc. Insert whatever adjective you like but that's how it feels looking in the mirror most days, even though it shouldn't. At the end of the lesson we erase all of the adjectives and replace them with the words "Created by God" and "Chosen by God." Those are the truths we need to be seeing in the mirror every single day! We need to be reminded every time we glance in the mirror that we were formed by the very hands of our loving Father. And when He made us He had a perfect vision of us and He wouldn't have it any other other way, otherwise He would have made us that way. Trust me guys, I am not the poster child for remembering such an important fact, I know it's hard to focus on what God wants us to believe about ourselves and not what the world wants us to believe. The world's view of beauty is so messed up because we are trained from a young age that tall and skinny is the way to be beautiful and it's not. I'm not saying that tall skinny girls or guys aren't beautiful, I'm just saying it's not the only way to be perfect. Because we are ALL perfect the way we are! But our worldly focused minds reject that idea and tell us a lie, that we are worthless to everyone unless we fit the standard.

     So what are we supposed to do about it? Well what I did is took a similar approach to The Landing's lesson, I wrote on the top of my mirror (with a dry erase marker) "TREASURED by GOD." And every day I look in the mirror and it breaks through my list of flaws and reminds me of Deuteronomy 14:2 "Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be His treasured possession." So then I wrote that verse under it as a several times daily reminder. Now I'm working on seeing those letters written on other reflective surfaces so that way my first reaction isn't "ew." It's not easy, nothing that I write about here is going to be easy but I know that it's going to be worth it!

     My challenge for all of you is to take a dry erase marker and write "Created by God" or "Chosen by God" or "Treasured by God" or "Loved by God," whatever works for you do it! Then choose a verse to encourage you, whether it be Deuteronomy 14:2 or another verse that reminds you of your worth and purpose in God and write it underneath that. If you don't have a dry erase marker either buy one, borrow one, write it out on post-its big enough for you to see every time, or on paper taped to the mirror. I don't care how you do it, you just need to do it and then little by little you will start believing those words and they will penetrate your list.

     If you feel comfortable take a mirror selfie with what you wrote and post it in the comments to encourage others to take the challenge! You can also post it to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the hashtag #fourteentwo and the link michaelaann17.blogspot.com to share this blog and challenge with others! I am praying like crazy for all of you that are taking this journey of placing your worth in Christ with me! If you would like to talk to me about anything please get a hold of me through Facebook, the comments section, Google+ or if you have my number that works too!

     Let's end this with a prayer: "Dear Lord, thank you for creative ways that we can remind ourselves of our worth in You! I ask that the people taking this challenge will truly be changed by it and that they would allow their hearts to be open to the work that you want to do in them. Let us be bold and post the pictures of our mirrors so that world will see that we are treasured by You and we will not allow this world to continue to skew our self-image or our self-worth. Lord I ask that this blog will help at least one person out there struggling and that those who aren't struggling with these issues would share this with someone that they know is dealing with this. Thank you for all that You do for us! In Jesus' Name, Amen!

Here's my TREASURED by GOD selfie :)