The Mirror

(Note: I wrote this about 3 1/2 years ago but stumbled upon it again recently and feel it still applies as much today as it did then).

I had a strange thing happen to me the other day.  I was in my bathroom, getting ready to go to town.  I took one last look in the mirror before walking out.  As I walked into the hallway, I noticed my slippers had been left in my husband’s bathroom from the evening before.  As I went in to pick them up, I glanced in the mirror.  Funny thing was, as I looked into his mirror my reflection seemed to look better than it had in my mirror.  Thinking that strange I went back into my bathroom to see—and yes I definitely looked worse in my mirror!  It made me start to think about different department stores that I have been in from time to time.  I have had the same experience there—certain mirrors seemed to reflect a better looking me than others.  Perhaps it is the lighting or the actual mirror itself because I refuse to believe that it is just in my head.  But in actuality, regardless of the reason, my reflection stays largely similar—it’s always me! 

I get a different perspective when I look at my son, Hunter.  In him I see slight variations of my husband--his mouth, his hairline, his charming personality.  I can even start to see a glimpse or two of me.  I take a lot of pride in my son.  Even though he is not able to do that much, he causes an awful lot of love to pour out of my heart.  I love that he is a reflection of Trent and I.

Which brings me back to the mirror.  What I see when I look in the mirror is probably quite different from what God sees when he looks at me.  And although Hunter is a reflection of his father and I, we are all reflections of our father—our Heavenly father.  What I need to ask myself is, how accurate of a reflection am I?  Do people look at me and say “Oh, God looked a little better in her yesterday?” or do they say; “Now that is what Jesus must look like.”

This is the challenge we all face as parents; to mirror God to our children so that they will look more like him every day.  We were after all created in His image—shouldn't’t we reflect that?