Four other ladies from WCA and I went to Tulsa to attend the A.C.E. Christian Educator's Convention. We left Sunday afternoon and spent the night Sunday night before attending the all day conference on Monday. The hotel we stayed in was very nice, but the make-up mirror in the bathroom was awful! It was a magnifying mirror with a lighted circle around it. Who can resist such a mirror? Before bed, I turned on the light and gazed in intently only to be shocked and horrified at what I say therein.
I was surprised to find that my eyebrows were not as well groomed as I thought they were. I immediately found my tweezers and spent several minutes trying to rectify that situation. Unfortunately, my eyebrows were so unruly that hand strength and attention span became issues and I gave before my brows were properly tamed. Next I noticed that I have quite a collection of crows' feet that I had previously been blissfully unaware of. When did I get those? My ever-problematic freckles tauted me, standing out even more than usual under magnification and proper lighting. And, were those zits? It's just wrong to have to deal with wrinkles AND zits! I left the bathroom struggling with my self-esteem. Melinda, Laura, and I agreed that we should NEVER look in such a mirror, it's too revealing! I would, frankly, rather not know about all of my facial flaws. Ignorance is bliss.
My temper often serves as a lighted magnification mirror for my personality flaws. I'd rather walk around unaware of my many faults, but my temper highlights those shortcomings to the point that they are not only obvious to me, but also to anyone in the near vicinity. My oh-so-revealing temper got the best of me today and shined a spot-light on some of my less attractive attributes. I can be walking about (perhaps just shopping in Walmart) when suddenly my tempter begins advertising my selfishness, meanness, and self-centeredness. Emotional eruption on aisle 5...clean-up crew needed. That's not to imply that my temper isn't a flaw in and of itself. Believe me, I understand that it is. I only mean to point out how much it magnifies my other sins (that I prefer to believe do not exist). It amazes me how I can be so concerned about superficial things like wrinkles, blemishes, and stray hairs and, yet, remain so unconcerned about things that really matter...at least until they blow up in my face and announce themselves to the world at large. It doesn't actually make them larger, just harder to ignore. Why worry over a few stray eyebrow hairs when my temper is sitting on my face like a giant Neanderthal uni-brow? And, yet, even as I choose to ignore my own sins, I often point a critical finger at other people's flaws. Physical beauty cannot stand up against such spiritual ugliness. The Lord can groom me, though. His Word will pluck, prune, nip, tuck, and cleanse until (eventually) I shine in His beauty. May He be at work in my life, this log in my eye didn't bother me until I noticed it and now that I know it's there it has become excruciating!
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