Monday, January 17, 2011

Mirror...Mirror...









I just have to share with you a traumatic occurrence in my life! I had put off confronting it for many months but last week I finally had to do it. I went shopping for clothes. The sales were great so I picked out a few things that I liked from the sales rack. The pleasant lady in the store took my selection and asked if she could "start a room" for me. I handed the clothes over to her and after a few more picks I went into the dressing room that she had “started”. First off I noticed that my hair was a mess and why did I wear those shoes and black socks of all things? I began to undress so I could try on the new duds and that is when I noticed that the store had replaced ordinary mirrors with distorted ones, you know, the kind that makes you laugh at the county fair. I appeared much shorter and much wider, my legs “appeared” to have a bad case of cellulite and I was sure I saw the map of Illinois on one of my thighs. I contributed it all to really, really bad lighting and went ahead to try on my first item. The slacks that hung so beautifully on the “dummy” would only go to my knees, I quickly checked the size. After seeing it was indeed my size, I was sure that someone had put the wrong size or perhaps it was just the cut of the trousers. Okay next item! Ohhhhh, I didn’t know I had age spots on my back that would dwarf a good size saucer or maybe that too was the lighting! I dressed in the next outfit and decided that I should try another mirror so I went out to the three-way mirror outside the dressing rooms, I was sure the lighting was better out there! To my horror, both mirrors were really bad I thought. “Can I help you find another size, the now “so getting on my nerves” pleasant lady asked. As she was standing beside me in the distorted mirror, amazingly looking normal, I had to come to grips with the truth. I had gained weight in all the wrong places! Almost in tears, I carried my larger clothing to the check out, pledging to lose weight. I reasoned it would be a healthy thing for the new year and would probably help my cholesterol numbers, which seemed to be higher on every trip to the doctor. I even took a run through the exercise clothes section but decided that my ego could not stand trying on the spandex outfits.






After paying for my items, I found my husband who I am sure wondered about my quietness on the way home. In an effort to cheer me up, he announced that what we needed was an ice cream from the DQ and at that I forgot about the awful images that I had just witnessed in the distorted store mirrors. He was right, I cheered up and ordered myself a hot fudge sundae, if I could have super sized it I would have. As the creamy delight slid down my throat, the images quickly faded from my memory.






I find myself doing this same thing when I read the word of God sometimes. I see truth that makes me uncomfortable or seems too hard to apply to my life and I want to turn away and forget what I saw. It seems too hard because I forget who the image in the mirror is to God and how he will help me do anything he asks me to do. That’s when I need to reread James and what he says about not merely listening to the word of God but doing it.






James 1:22-25






Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it---he will be blessed in what he does.






Memories of that awful event are fading and are nothing that DQ can’t fix but I never want to read His word and turn away. I want to devour his words and do what they say. I want to remember that the mirrors at the clothing store can give me a wake up call but I also want to remember that the person in the mirror is a Child of the King and loved so much that he died for my sins and I can do all things through Him who gave himself for me. Hallelujah!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Take A Number

Have you ever apologized to God for bringing your “small” requests? I know I have! When you hear of such suffering how can you ask God to take away your headache? How can I ask for trivial things when the people of Haiti are dealing with starvation and plagues? There is always someone who needs the Lord’s attention more than I do so I am glad that I am not put on a waiting list. I don’t hear Him say, “Go ahead take a number and I will get to you after I take care of the really big stuff”. Where would, even my most desperate, prayers place in importance in light of the worlds problems? Can you imagine if he said “take a number” and it read “123,536,785,3098”? Wow, I can get shook up if I have ten ahead of me at the driving license facility.


As I read my bible, there are all kinds of requests for help and healing by Jesus. I see the woman who could only touch the edge of his robe for healing because there were so many people ahead of her but that was all it took. She was healed! I see Jairus plead for the life of his twelve year old daughter only to get news that she had died. At this announcement Jesus told this grieving father, “don’t be afraid, just believe and she will be healed”. She was healed! We read of the blind that had their sight restored, lepers who were cleansed and the demon possessed who were rescued from their tormentors. All healed! How can some of my requests even compare to problems of this magnitude? Don’t get me wrong, I have some “Jairus” sized requests and long for answers but I also have those “not so big” requests as well! Fortunately I have a God that cares about them all. There are no lines when we try to get to the Lord, we don’t have to take a number and wait for Him to listen, we don’t have to apologize for talking to our Father about anything, even small things.


As a mother, I am blessed to have my children come to me, even as adults, asking me to pray for their needs. Sometimes their problems are small and some times they are huge. Sometimes they are in need of healing and covet my prayers but sometimes encouragement is all they need. I want them to see that my arms are always opened as well as my heart because I am their Mom and there is no higher privilege. Our heavenly Father also waits with open arms and a loving heart. He hears His children and is anxious to talk with us. He longs to put us first on the list with no waiting!


Luke 11:9
So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will