Thursday, October 6, 2016

Mirror



On my way to work one morning last week I was fuming about some family things and these words from a song I wasn’t really paying attention to came across loud and clear:

Look in the mirror, but you find someone you never thought you'd be.

I was stunned.  If I would’ve been walking, I would’ve stopped in my tracks.  Rather I was driving, so I did pull my foot off the gas pedal for a second as those words sunk in… Look in the mirror, but you find someone you never thought you'd be… 

And I thought to myself, “when I was a young girl, this is not the person I envisioned myself being!

Sure, life’s circumstances are WAY different than I had planned, but regardless of what this life has thrown my way I realized that my younger self would be totally disappointed in how I was behaving.  My internal frustrations weren’t turned into outward acts of violence, but my thoughts—which God clearly knows—were unkind.  Growing up I always thought of myself as a kind person.  To say the least, I was disappointed in myself. 
                                                                                                                  
I later looked up that song (Matthew West - Mended) and listened to the whole thing.  I was left shaking my head in wonder of our awesome God.  I was not listening to the music coming from my car’s speakers that morning, but He opened my ears to hear the one part of that song that I needed to hear.  God does speak to us.  He will sometimes use what is right in front of our eyes (or ears) to send us a message.  Those words were exactly what I needed to hear to get me out of my funk.  No, life is not perfect.  My husband is not perfect; I’m not perfect; we don’t have a perfect marriage; I don’t have perfect stepkids.  But I can rely on a PERFECT GOD to carry me through life’s unexpected circumstances and I can choose joy within them. 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  {James 1:2-4 NIV}

I think it would do us all good to look at ourselves in a virtual mirror and think about what our younger self would think about how we were responding to our daily circumstances.  My reflection wasn’t so pretty, but now that I’ve seen that image I’m working on improving it! 

Love & Hugs,
MK

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