Mirrors

I have a love-hate relationship with mirrors. I experienced both of those feelings at a P.F. Chang's restaurant once. Excusing myself from the dinner table, I went to the restroom and stepped in front of the mirror. Due to low lights and surrounding stone walls, my skin looked more tan than blotchy, my hair more black than "cover-it-now" gray, and my blouse was wrinkle-and-toddler-stain free. I bent over the sink and smiled (inside and out) to put some lipstick on and there it was. A small tidbit of Kung Pao's chicken tucked in my teeth. How long had THAT been there? If I was a balloon, the noise of instant deflation would've been heard outside the restaurant.


The Word of God is likened to many different images in the Bible. It's like a two-edged sword in Heb. 4:12; like a hammer and fire in Jer. 23:29; like a lamp and light in Ps. 119; like a seed in Lk. 8 and John 6:63; like food in Matt. 4:4 and 1 Pet. 1; and also like a mirror.

James 1:23-25 (NAS) says "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does."

You know, when I saw that chunk of chicken crouching in my gums, I whipped out one of those little tooth flossers in my purse and got rid of it. I didn't roll out a welcome mat and invite it to stay, nor did I try and cover it with a patch of gum. My flesh moves fast to remove outward flaws that can be seen by others.

But my heart is to be so filled with the Spirit of God and love for Him, that when His Word reflects to me a flaw in my character or a sinful spot on my heart, I should quickly move in obedience to do what God commands in my situation. Ignore the flesh that wants to cover it up, reason it away, coddle it like a friend, or as the verse says, walk away and ignore what has just been shown to me.

Take that spiritual dental floss of repentance and obedience wherever you go...cuz sin is just like Kung Pao's...it'll try to hide.