“Mirror, mirror of my mind who is the prettiest woman in this land.” (Have we heard this tale before?)
Oh my dear said the Mirror, “You are ugly as ugly can be.”
“Oh,” cried the woman, “I must be perfect. I must look young. I must do something about this terrible mess called me.”
“I’ll straighten my hair, fix my eyes, throw out my old clothes, and fix my jaw line, buy a new house.” Why does everyone look better than me she thought?
She went to the doctor and he fixed her jaw. He pulled and cut and even gave her a tuck here and there.
Yeah! She thought. Now I’m pretty. She went to the Mirror. “Mirror who is the prettiest in the land?”
Oh my dear said the mirror, “You are still ugly as ugly can be.”
“What? What? You have the nerve to tell me that after all I have changed! yelled the woman. What is with you? Have you not noticed, I think I look rather pretty, look again?”
The mirror shook his head – no.
The woman thought, “Heck with you mirror. People will surely look at me differently. Yeah mirror, you just wait and see!”
The mirror replied, “I am the one who loved you from the very first day that I laid eyes on you, before you were born. I loved you when you sang to me. I loved it when you called me friend. What happened to you? You can’t even see my face anymore. Why did you stop to listen to the voice of your mind-mirror? That mirror wants you to become as lifeless as it is. I look at the heart, my child. Each time you have listened to the your mirror, that mirror has turned your heart to stone, which that mirror is. I do no care that you change your outward appearance. I only care and look at the heart. If you look and desire me and look really close you will see me reflected in you.
“Who are you?” asked the girl.
“I’m Jesus, have you forgotten? When you listen to the your self focused mirror you help no one. Your focus is on you. When you listen to me you are able to reach out in love and serve, you receive in turn love. When you do these things you will see me a little clearer in the mirror at each viewing. Now listen to my heavenly music, I want to play through you to touch thousands. Listen to my urgings to give a smile, pray without stopping, fix a meal, give a hug, or serve one of my children. I love you. I can’t shine through you with the your self focused mirror because that mirror focuses on self. Let me come first and I’ll put a light into your countenance that will warm thousands. I am the mirror that only reflects Me each time you look into it, nothing else will do.
Reader: Which mirror do you choose? Which one will show Jesus’ character? Why did Jesus say nothing else will do? If you choose Jesus to be seen in your mirror, how can you make his image more focused?
By Rena Oynes © 2003
thedailylily.com 
I guess this mirror person did not have a Mother like mine! I was taught from my Mother’s knee, “pretty is as pretty does,” which means that you should judge people and YOURSELF by the way they/you behave, not by their appearance.
By the way would you like to stay physically fit? Try this exercise….
The best exercise for the human heart is reaching down to lift someone else up.
~ Tim Russert
This story of Rena’s reminds me of some words of advice from Jesus, the mirror, in Matt 6:24. He plainly tells us the fact that you can’t serve two masters because you will ‘hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other’.
The love of the self/the love of what we look like either by appearance or action to please others first and foremost is a cruel master and never satisfied. While we are busily serving this master we show hatred for The Master, Jesus.
Sara wrote a blog “Mirror Mirror on The Wall-Who’s the fairest of us all!” June 7, 2007 under ‘Inspiration’. It is worth reading and provides insight as to why the woman in Rena’s story feels the need to ask this question in the first place: ‘who is the prettiest woman in this land?”
Rena, your story made me look more closely at what Paul said in one of his Epistles when he wrote…” we see as in a mirror, darkly…blurred vision…1Cor. 13: 12. But what we should be doing is looking with unveiled vision beholding as in the mirror the glory of God, being transformed constantly into His very image in ever increasing splendor…from one degree of glory to another, coming through the Holy Spirit. That’s how we should be picturing ourselves, striving for that inner beauty that is reflected in the countenance, ever increasingly.
But most of us are like James decries in 1:23…instead; We look at our face, carefully observing it and then walk away and promptly forget what we are like. But when we look into the WORD of God as in a mirror, looking into it and paying attention to every detail of it as though we were putting on our make up for a grand ball or as men shaving and preparing for an important, life changing interview…if we heeded the Word of God that meticulouly, then we would begin to see the glory to glory that we all so long for. That beauty that we all crave…that the eye searches for…beauty, true beauty.
What a great suggestion to stay physically fit Sara!
We learned another exercise at Retreat ’09 from your workbook “Dressing for His Glory” that I would like to suggest we add to our fitness regime for helping to eliminate that self-focus flab around the mind that could lead to some real mental health problems.
Here’s what you said that Dr. Karl Menninger quotes (from Lesson 8 , ‘Flower of the Sun, Work of the Lord’):
‘When asked the question, “What would you advise a person to do”, asked one man,” “if that person felt a nervous breakdown coming on?'”
Most people expected him to reply, ‘consult a psychiatrist.’ To their astonishment, he replied, “Lock up your house, go across the railway tracks, find someone in need and do something to help that person.”
I use buzzwords to think how to stay focused. One that I use many times, “Sara, think while you are in the mind.” I have come to believe afterthoughts are just that…after the fact. Not a lot of punch to an afterthought. Think about it, she said thank you as an afterthought, she apologized as an afterthought.
Quote from Rena;s story, “Why did you stop to listen to the voice of your mind-mirror? That mirror wants you to become as lifeless as it is.” This quote reminds me again and again, “think while you are in the mind.”
Does this smack of Alice In Wonderland??
This makes me think of the song we all know and love, sing with me:
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in His wonderful face,
and the things, of earth will grow
strangely dim, in the light of His
Glory, and Grace”
good song with thoughts Needles. Put your eyes and mind where it brings rewards.
Needles, that song goes along with Sara’s “as I look I see His face shining as a Glory of Grace” and the song you quote…”in the light of His glory and grace”.
Good thinking MG! We talk much about God’s Grace in the church and rightly so. We are saved by God’s Grace. We know grace as God’s goodness directed toward human debt and resolved by His good pleasure as a benefit to the undeserving.
As we study and meditate on God’s Grace we understand that it is an attribute of God. Therefore, grace is infinite and eternal. It has no beginning and no end. It is boundless and has no limits.
In my song, “Waiting Room’, written from my needy being I realized when I saw God and His Light shining on me, Jesus, Son of Righteousness, with not a trace of darkness I saw a glimpse of eternal hope for my awful being. What I came to know as a definite is this “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
O! HOW I LOVE JESUS for showering me with God Grace!