Whose Mirror Are You Reflecting?

October 10, 2018

Alabama Baptist SBOM

How do you see yourself? We all have a vision of how we look, who we are. You might call this our self-vision. I was recently reading something from Stephen Covey. Actually, reviewing a book I had read years ago. Covey was writing about this subject, vision or how we see our self. Covey wrote, “We all have some vision of ourselves and our future. And that vision creates consequences. More than any other factor, vision affects the choices we make and the how we spend our time.”

Perhaps today more than any time in history the social mirror is clamoring for more and more reflected identity. People whose vision is based on the social mirror make choices and decisions based on what others think. Choices are made based on the expectations of others. A person whose self-vision is only a reflection of the social mirror, cannot have a personal connection to the true self, his unique abilities to develop and contribute to family and society.

The Baby-boomer generation (of which I am one), wrote its own script. Sometimes that was good, sometimes perhaps not. Even in the coming of age, Baby-boomers created its own social mirrors. Many of the social mirrors of the Baby-boomers were to reflect anything but what “the establishment” stood for. Baby-boomers have carried some of those social mirrors for 50 years.

Yet, as I look around today, I see a social mirror that is very different and extreme. And it is being cast on younger generations much by the Baby-boomer leaders in various sectors of our society.

Whether in America or any other culture, a social mirror reflection of self is always pulling people away from his/her true God-given individuality. When we are living out scripts handed to us by others we cannot honor God through our uniqueness created by Him.

With a passion to unearth your true self, the reflection in your mirror can be a prevailing motivating force to propel you beyond anything you can imagine or dream. It happened for me first, when I stopped watching the news, in 1980. I realized newscasts were negative. Of a typical thirty-minute newscast, seldom is there more than thirty seconds of anything not negative. No wonder people have such a negative perspective on life. It was not only turning off newscasts. I made a concerted effort to change my self-vision, my mirror of me.

Last week my wife and I saw a photo of a young woman whom we knew when she was a teenager. As a teenager, she saw herself as an outcast, someone who was different, unliked, undesireable. Because this is who she felt she was in society, this was her mirror, she always tried to reflect this image, and she did it well. However, the photo we saw last week revealed a beautiful young lady with a positive attitude and a drive to accomplish, even in spite of society if society tried to push back on her.

God created you a unique individual with positive qualities to accomplish that which is beyond your comprehension. Whose mirror are you reflecting, society’s, or God’s?

George Yates is the Church Health Strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, assisting churches and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Learn more at ALSBOM.org/revitalization.