Scarred Reflection

I would assume this wasn't the original intent, but it seems like social media is comprised of roughly 20-25% pornography. Now it would be easy to pin this stat on the 20-something year old misguided men and women of urban upbringing.  Or maybe peg the blame on the loose-moral reality television stars.   But the fact of the matter is that many 30 year old (and up) women are lettin' 'em hang and poke out for the camera.  These [supposedly] mature ladies have taken a page from there teenage...uh...mentees and have turned their somewhat clean bathrooms into a photo set; quickly releasing distasteful and vulgar images for hundreds to see.  And in the true spirit of porn, where no amount of money can outweigh the emotion rush of voyeurism  the independent woman does this for free.

My opinion is that all of this, no matter age or gender, revolves around self-esteem issues.  And nothing says self-esteem struggles like sew-ins and duck lips.  In addition, we can't limit this thought to sexually-driven images; as most of us present pictures that cast lights on our lives that are infrequent and sometimes completely false.

Aside from being shameful, this is very unfortunate.  See friends, these scarred reflections don't just appear out of anywhere.  They are birthed from some event, some tragedy, some atrocity, that has carved a ditched into a persons' soul that is difficult or seemingly incapable of being filled.  Over time this landscape change has convinced the individual that they are this abused, horrible, grotesque, or broken individual.  Therefore, instead of applying the necessary renovations, we tend to ignore and cover the hurt.  These proverbial blankets come in the form of drug and alcohol misuse, or sexual provocation, or even trumped up images of ourselves.  We hate the mirror...and so...we tell it what to reflect.

However, one of the great things of walking with The Lord is being able to appropriately address these wounds.  Understand, the "my hands look new...." thing is inaccurate.  So things that we've done or that were done to us 5, 10, 20 years ago likely will have visible evidence of the act.  Even with the outstanding life God has brought me to, my past desperate situations haven't been erased from my memory.  It's so real that not only are the scars noticeable to me, I can even taste the air of my old wars.  So for me, a simple decision was made to toss my mirror and look at the reflection that comes from of the Word of God.  That mirror shows a strong man, a blessed man, a healed man, a winner.

Let your reflective view be one of an accomplished present instead of a painful past; for victory is in the eye of the competitor and in the Hand of the Almighty.

Peace