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“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (James 1:23-24).

Ladies, when you look in the mirror do you see what others see? Our own perception of ourselves is often clouded by emotions, experiences and self-evaluations. We forget we are actually seeing ourselves backwards.

Our left is really our right and vice versa.  We also notice every little flaw, magnified. Is that what we are reflecting? We pray people won’t see our natural face. We’d rather cover it up with makeup – reduce the flaws, erase the imperfections.

Have you ever seen a photograph of yourself and thought, “Do I really look like that?” I have. I am probably the least photogenic person in the world.  I have my own idea of the way I appear. Sometimes I think the whole world is noticing the mole on my chin, the new wrinkles around my eyes, not the color of eye shadow I have on that matches my blouse. Other times I fool myself into thinking no one will notice my flaws. Both are vanity, both focus on me.

Christ calls us to mirror Him. When people see us, they are to see His light shining through us in spite of our flaws. That is, if we are doers of the Word not merely listeners.  When we do God’s will, we should see ourselves differently because we are projecting Him to the world. He’ll always present us in the best Light – His own.

But, if we try to plaster over our flaws and not let others see us and what He is doing in our lives, when we try to cover up everything, we no longer trust Him to present us to the world the way He wishes. We appear fake.

Not to say we should not strive to look our best. Of course we should. But no matter how good we try to look to others, if we don’t have Christ shining through our countenance, we’ll never look our best. Why? Because He is the best. We will not see Him mirrored in us and neither will others. We’ll walk away and go about our business trying to impress the world, and perhaps ourselves. We’ll forget that we are beautiful in His sight, and therefore, attractive to the world.

Question: Do you see yourself as Christ sees you? Do others?

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About the Author Julie Cosgrove