The 40-Day Mirror Fast: Focusing Your Eyes on Jesus and Off Your Appearanceნიმუში

The Mirror Tilt

One of my favorite exercises when speaking to a women's group is the mirror tilt. Here's how it goes.

Culture tells us two main ways to make peace with your mirror. Way one is you make the mirror happy by fixing or altering what it reflects. If you don't like your nose, you get rhinoplasty. If you don't like your lips, get some fillers or a new liner and lipstick. Please hear me. There's nothing inherently sinful in these activities.

But, if we believe we'll be satisfied with our appearance when we get a little work done or get the right combination of products and potions, we're setting ourselves up for disappointment.

Body image issues don't work that way.

It's never enough when we work to keep the mirror (and ourselves) happy.

The second way culture tells us to make peace is to abandon our feelings. Just decide to love what you see. If you can't love the whole thing, choose one part you like and go out into the world confident because of it. For example, if you don't like your nose or cheeks but have a nice shape to your brows, enter the world with confidence, knowing you have great eyebrows. Focus on what you like and ignoring what you don't becomes the secret to self-assurance.

But confidence rooted in great eyebrows is short-lived at best. What happens when you age and those brows thin? Or what happens if you have a grilling accident and burn those brows off with an unexpected burst of flames? Your confidence goes up in smoke, too!

The Mirror Tilt ignores the two ways culture tells you to find confidence in the mirror.

As you tilt your mirror up, be reminded that true confidence comes from living a life that reflects Christ. Like 1 Corinthians instructs, we are to imitate him. Your real purpose on this earth is far greater than being pretty. Instead, by tilting your mirror up, you can take the pressure off of trying to please the mirror and remember that there's nothing more beautiful than God's light shining through you.