A look in the Mirror

Last summer at camp I had many great memories but this is the fondest of all.  While I was there I got to meet an amazing counselor named Racquel who is my insiration for this story.  One night we had a purity talk at camp and the boys and girls split up so the counselors could talk to us about purity.  We talked awhile and at the end they gave each of us a slip of paper that we could sign to show that we made a purity commitment.  When I went to hand mine in Racquel looked at me and said, “Jordan, I’ve been wanting to tell you that you have such beautiful eyes.”  This was only the beginning of a wonderful week.  The next day we did a reflection time where they told us to look into the mirror that they had set before us and see ourselves as God sees us.  They said we could stay there as long as it took.  Before I sat down I thought this would be an easy task.  Boy was I wrong.  When I sat down I started pointing out my flaws instead of seeing myself the way God saw me.  I then thought back to what Racquel had told me.  She wasn’t talking about my eyes in the way I thought.  She was talking about what she could see through them.  I had never thought of myself as beautiful before that day.  I learned that day that everyone is beautiful because God does not look at the outside of us, it is the inside he is worried about.  All of us are so worried about what we look like, that is why we use a mirror.  I ended up staying in front of the mirror for about 45 minutes. Yes, it took that long for me to see myself as God saw me.  I tried thinking about how God saw  me but it didn’t work.  Praying was the key.  I started praying that God would show me how he saw me.  When I stopped praying and looked up into the mirror, I didn’t see what I saw earlier.  I saw someone that was beautiful and wasn’t worried about what the mirror wanted me to look for;  the flaws. That day God showed what kind of person I was to Him. After that I was astonished.  God didn’t see me in any way that I saw myself.  It was one of the most humbling experiences I have had.  I would recommend looking into the mirror one day, not to fix your hair or see if there is something on your face. But, to see yourself as God sees you, the wonderful person you are inside. God thinks you are BEAUTIFUL!  It doesn’t matter what we look like on the outside, the inside is all that matters.