Sep
17
2010
looking glass
{sharing what a can of spray paint and a leftover mirror from a bathroom renovation 3years ago can do for your stairwell}
Mirrors are a funny thing. Beautiful and dainty, strong and sculptural, or simple and clean…they never lie. You can dress them up with pretty chippy aqua paint and hang them to reflect your “best side” but the image will always remain. Me. With all my faults and imperfections glaringly obvious staring right back at me. Funny how a sheet of glass can play such an important role in our lives. How it can shape who we are and how we interact with our world. Funny how a sheet of glass can make us feel “fat” and “frumpy” or tell us that we aren’t good enough. But it’s not the glass. It’s our heart we see in the reflection. And more than anything…I want to see those faults with fresh eyes and still find the beauty that God created. Not because of how I (or my house…or my kids…or my life) look but because of what HE created me to DO. I’m full of cracks and holes…and that’s a depressing thought….unless there is a Savior who loves me with a redeeming power so strong as to wipe all my faults away. I’m created in his IMAGE. I’m created to LOVE. To find the beauty in others. To REFLECT the love that God has shown me. What an awesome command. So what do you see in your looking glass?
I remember a LONG time ago I wanted desperately for Ms. Linda from “Romper Room” to look through her magic glass and call my name. I was 4 years old. And as I watched her on our tv set my heart skipped a beat at the end of every episode. “Romper Bomper Stomper Boo..Tell me tell me tell me who…Magic mirror tell me today…Did all my friend have fun at play? I see Jimmy…I see Susie…I see Sally” she quipped while peering through a looking glass seated at the Romper Room set table. How I longed for that simple recognition. {just a note to the producers of that show: would it have been so hard to give a shout out to the Jennifers of the world…there were only a hundred thousand of us in 1979). I’ve since learned that the recognition is often hollow. It’s the simple, joyous acts {that go unnoticed by most} that usually yield the most beauty in my life.
So on this sunny Friday afternoon…will you join me? Take a good, long look in your mirror. And repeat after me, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it…people like me!” {HA…so sorry…did anyone else LOVE that skit from Saturday Nite Live??}
Go be beautiful in the life of someone this weekend!
Oh Jenn, that was beautiful and oh so true. Well spoken my friend. Love the new mirror too.
Thank you for writing this! What a great way to start a weekend. Love the mirror and the thoughts that went with it.
Gosh darn it…I LIKE you! Great post…..crying…..sniff.
I don’t know how to start…
and i just have to say that your family is simply gorgeous! Those beautyful girls and that handsome little gentlemen are such a blessing and as if that wasn’t enough pretty soon your family will be even more perfect and complete…
I’m visiting your blog from time to time, ok . ok. quite often actually
Every time when I look at those photographs that you take I have the feeling that you are trying to find a beauty in others, and guess what, you are doing a great job! Peolpe at yours photographs are beautyful and full of love, love to their children, love to their husband and wives. Looking at those pretty pictures is simply pleasure for me.
And about this mirror thing.. i’ve always have a problem with mirrors.. I’ve always was very critical about myself… but the thibg is to try to find something good in yourself. So what I can find when i look at the mirror? A wife, a mommy, a woman that is trying to be the best wife in the whole worl, and the motther that is trying to color the world of her daughter.
Thank you for being you. I just love to sneak up (with your permission of course) to your world and to observe a shots of yours family life. It’s very inspiring
Greeting from Poland,
http://www.zaczarowana-kraina-angelii-blogspot.com
That was beautiful! I’m reading The Discipline of Grace by Jeff Bridges right now….ooohh so good for really getting to the core of what Grace is. Such a hard concept to grasp and we moms often give ourselves so little. Thank you for the reminders!! And, yes love that skit! One of my favorites behind Deep Thoughs by Jack Handey:)
Jenn where did you get the tin piece of your couch? love it!
Love this post, its so beautiful…but I’ve gotta ask….HOW did you do that mirror??? I have an old mirror from my grandma who passed away and I want to refinish similar to that I just don’t know how to do it.