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What do you do first thing in the morning? For most girls, we look in the mirror. We gots to see how we lookin’ for the day. It’s amazing to me that the mirror can be such a powerful object in our lives. Just one look in the mirror can set the tone for the rest of our day. The mirror in so many ways shapes our thinking about ourselves.
The daily mirror temptation
When we look in the mirror, we become most susceptible to being consumed with our image. Maybe we do not like the way we look so we work hard to change the person in the mirror, or maybe we love the way we look and are tempted to admire ourselves all the time! These temptations are easy for us to fall into!
Dangerous mirror messages
Mirrors always create a message in our heads. Some mirror messages may include:
“I really need to drop some pounds!”
“Wow look at you girl! You looking good today! Today is the day for that cute guy to fall head over heels in love with you!”
“Ewe I’ve got something stuck in my teeth!”
“Ugh look at those bags under my eyes! So glad I have some concealer for that!”
“Oh yes! I finally got my eyeliner just perfect!”
Do you see some problems with these messages? For one thing, these statements are obviously pretty self-consuming. Some of these messages wound us with self-consciousness. Others wound us with pride. We may become conceited and hard to be around. Either wounding message makes it hard for us to reach out, serve others, and knock on doors of opportunity. Most importantly, these messages focus more on the girl stuck in the mirror. They do not encourage us to make changes that really matter. Instead of focusing on changing our character, we focus on changing shallow things like our appearance.
***NOTE: This post is not a mirror conspiracy post. I am not about to tell you to take all mirrors out of your house and burn them.
So the question is: How can we change these mirror messages? I mean obviously, we cannot just avoid mirrors altogether.
Overcoming the mirror temptation
When the Israelites first started learning God’s law, God commanded them:
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV).
Basically, God is telling them to put His words everywhere. One thing all humans have in common is our tendency to forget. We need reminders of God’s truths.
The mirror is one place we could really use those reminders! As mentioned earlier, the mirror can often play a key role in shaping our minds for the rest of the day. To start the day right, we need positive, truthful mirror messages.
Reversing the mirror message
For those of you who like being creative and making everything cute, good news! This will be fun for you! To reverse the mirror messages, a good idea is to post scripture reminders on our mirrors where we will see them every day. When the temptation arises to be consumed with our image, these scriptures put our minds back in the right place. Here are some ideas to get you started.
- The most popular mirror message is found in Psalms 139:14 “I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well! (ESV). This mirror message is a helpful reminder of where our praise should go. It should not go to ourselves but to God. In Psalms 139, there is a lot of incredible verses that would make great mirror messages.
- Take 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 put your name in the place of love. Example: Abigail is patient and kind; Abigail does not envy or boast… When you look in the mirror, this helps you reflect not only on what your image looks like but it also helps you reflect on what your character should look like.
“Put on” verses
- The Bible, gives us a lot of great, “put on verses.” These verses serve as great reminders to us while we put on our makeup some of the more important things we should put on. Some of these verses include:
- “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12).
- “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify it desires” (Romans 13:14).
- “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).
- “And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:23-24).
- “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).
- “Do not lie to one another seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:9-10).
- “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy, and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12).
- “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:14).
- “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8).
Reflect Christ
- One of my favorite mirror messages to create is a verse or phrase reminding me that my life should reflect Christ. One mirror message a friend gave me simply asks the question.
Am I reflecting Christ and His love today? (Click to tweet).
Go for it!
I hope these ideas inspire you to go decorate your mirror with lots of positive messages! To get you started, I am giving away fun little printouts that you can color, cut out, and then glue to some pretty paper. Click here to download your free printout. As always, thank you for tuning in to Princess Training!
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