A Mirror reflects what it Sees Written by Bambi Lynn

Every Season in our lives, the mirror tells us different stories, we are convinced that the mirror and our reflections know everything about us. But does it? We are convinced we are the reflection, and the reflection can tell our story.  Most of us have a love- hate relationship with the mirror. We have been told and also tell ourselves what our reflection means and for the most part people can't convince us any different.

 When we are little girls with our princess' dresses on and our tea parties, we prance and dance around in front of the mirror and see a beautiful princess with all of her dreams ahead of her, with tea parties and prince charming's, ready to take us away on his big white horse. We play dress up and with each outfit we go to the mirror and tell our little self's stories of what each outfit represents and how we feel in it and all that we will become because of the reflection we see in the mirror,

When I was a teenager and had to look in the mirror, I wasn't as convinced that I was a princess and that was going to marry a prince charming and that he would sweep me off feet into the sunset. I saw disgust, I saw a girl that was tattered by her choices and other people's choices, the ones nobody asked me about. but just took from me, I didn't see beauty in my reflection. I saw sadness, I saw depression, I saw unkept promises, I saw dirty, I saw choices in trying to find love in backseats of cars, I saw a girl that was bullied for poverty and my name. I saw drugs that weren't working to keep my weight down and wanting to look like the other girls. My reflection in that mirror gave me no hope. I thought there is no way that this mirror could tell my story and no way I could really believe it. But I did. I was desperate for a different reflection and maybe even a different mirror.

Looking into the mirror as a married woman gave me even more stories of who I was and how I was looked at. I would look at that reflection and many times ask the question, "why?" I didn't know such heartache existed as I was mocked and bullied by the very men who promised to love me. but I was never good enough. I was not something that was cherished but, destroyed by the tongue in their mouths they gave me the story that I was never enough, then add being burned, as a woman I was defeated by my reflection. I saw a woman that couldn't get it together and men that had no desire to help me to become whole. That mirror to me, gave me stories that would feed my mind of brokenness for years to come. I would see this woman and knew she was me but, I desired her to be beautiful and I didn't even know where to start because that mirror would torment me. I would allow it to take me to places I was never meant to go. I would allow it to take my voice and scream how ugly I was and who I was becoming. Love is a powerful thing and when you don't have it from someone that says they will. The reflection in the mirror only begins to show you their truth not yours. But you have no way of getting out of their mirror and getting your own.

The Journey of the mirror hasn't given me hope. Whenever I walk into a room and see my reflection. I have been trained one way to see myself, that I have had to re-train my eyes to see my reflection with hope and with eyes of destiny. Seeing myself every morning could be stressful at times. I know there has been times I have seen myself and compared myself to my beautiful friends and thought I can't measure up. I have looked at my reflection at times and been disappointed only to look again and see my soul instead of my face. I have taken index cards and put them near my mirror to remind me my refection has more to the story. When I stand nude in my mirror and I first see disgust but, then I look again and see my children with every stretched mark, I see my story of how I survived a burn incident and came out with just breast burned but, a story of ashes to beauty I see the beauty of food and the many hours I spent in the kitchen with my children and around the table with my friends, I see gravity pulling at my body but, I also see hours and hours of nursing my babies and rocking them to sleep and praying over them each night.. I see a life that was hard lived and some consequences of my choices good and bad. The mirror now tells me a different story because I chose to look at it through different eyes. The mirror can only tell us what we want to hear. But the mirror also is our reflection of journeying a story from one season to the next. We were never meant to stay the same even in our own reflection. The mirror was to show us how we are becoming from every stage of life we have walked through.

If I believe that God formed me from the foundations of time and he molded me in my mother's womb with everything I would need in life to walk through it, If I believe that I am the only person he made of me and there is no one like me and I was born to make a difference with my very own DNA, my own finger prints, and my very own gifts and beauty, How can I continue to say," God made a mistake in creating me?" I am the only me in this world. So, my reflection in the mirror is as unique as they come. I should see beauty then, because who is like me for me to compare? The worst thing we do is compare our reflection with someone else. I have learned through this process that I have created idols in my mind. Always thinking that someone is better, and that God had made a mistake. But has he? or am I to insecure to see who I really am and believe I am fearfully and wonderfully made in HIS image. I have been created by the master potter and the clay he used to form me was just for me. My reflection can be beautiful because it is HIS reflection not mine all along.

 I did an event in Buffalo, when I went home. The event was, "Finding your Treasures "It was promoting my book, The Treasures of My Heart.  But it was more than that. I wanted the group of women to feel and see their treasures within them. I wanted them to experience who they were and there was no mistake in creating them. One of the activities was placing a crown on their head and declaring them to fix their crowns for they are made of royalty. They were Kings' daughters. The next step was to wrap a cape around them, that was given to me as a gift from a dear friend. I wanted them to know they are the superheroes of their own lives because they had survived their stories and are living on to tell it. For me it was a defining moment in their lives, as I took a picture of them looking into the mirror and seeing the reflection of their very own superhero, Themselves. 

My reflection and myself have been on a journey. A Journey of discovery. A journey of becoming. A journey of wholeness. I am not the little girl with the princess dress anymore, dreaming of my prince charming, riding on a white horse to take me away. But I am that woman who has been fearfully and wonderfully made by a KING, that has already swept me away and he calls me his own. He has created my refection, and I am blessed to be his daughter whom he is well pleased. I found my reflection in him. Now it's your turn!!