Mirror Images by Susan L.

There's more to reflections than just remembering or peering into a mirror looking for yet another gray hair. Robert Burns penned the saying, "If only we could see ourselves as others see us." He had written this as a derogatory comment having seen a woman all beautified, powdered and wigged according to the latest fashion of the times. There were lice crawling around her neck. Also common at the time. I wonder what she saw in her looking glass? I believe we DO see ourselves as others see us, mostly to our own detriment. It isn't as obvious as vocal put-downs but the information is absorbed unconsciously. It's a broken mirror and a broken reflection. It's the unconscious part that nibbles away at our souls because these ideas can become so pervasive in how we treat both others and ourselves. It's like the trees along the bank of a smooth river whose image in the water is broken and twisted by the breeze. They look like trees but something isn't quite right. We are a mirror, too. I am guilty of projecting on to others my now old ideas of gender role and differentiating between men and women. I am guilty of unknowingly teaching the code of silence because some things aren't supposed to be talked about or questioned. I am guilty of passing on a whole manner of hard and often cruel ideas. Many of those are handed down generation after generation. These ideas are not of God and He has forgiven me for my ignorance and continues to lead me along the waters of enlightenment. It pays to pause and reflect. To examine our hearts and listen for God's truth. "For the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His afflicted." Is 49:13