Look Into The Mirror -- Is That Really You?

These pages were written to help Christians develop a better understanding of physical, emotional and spiritual health. If you would like to know more about Christianity, click here.

According to the Social Issues Research Center:

• human infants begin to recognise themselves in mirrors at about two years old
• humans, especially females, begin to dislike what they see only a few years later
• when people feel low or in a bad mood, they are more unhappy with their bodies
• women who are feeling low estimate their size to be larger
• people who were not held and hugged as children tend to suffer from extreme body-image disturbance
• people who watch ads featuring exceptionally slim and beautiful people tend to react poorly to pictures of themselves.
• Magazines such as Vogue and Elle are banned in many eating-disorder clinics because of their known negative effect on patients' body-image.
• people who were teased in childhood about flaws in their appearance may have highly distorted body-images.
• mental well-being of people who are obese tends to be worse than that of the chronically ill or severly disabled

Cats don't care! Like most animals, cats don't seem to recognize that the image in the mirror belongs to them.

People do care! We can be free from distorted images of ourselves when we begin to see ourselves as God sees us.

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

• If you dislike what you see in the mirror, you are not looking at yourself through God's eyes.
• God is delighted with you. He gave, Jesus, the most precious resource in the universe to bring you back from captivity.
• Take a look at I Peter 2:9-10.
• God has chosen you to be His own special person.
• You have been selected to proclaim the praises of God - you are a worship leader!

Why do we fail to see this?

• God has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
• God has done His part. He has made it possible for us to come out of darkness.
• We must do our part. We make the decision to step into God's Light.
• Part of the darkness is depending on the opinions of others.
• We cannot see ourselves as God sees us until we get free from trying to impress those around us.
• Whose opinion is more important to you:
  ____ God's -or-
  ____ your own -or-
  ____ some other person's?
• Ask God to help you see yourself as He sees you.