Day 13: No Mirrors: Rags and Tatters

I have to say, I thought this challenge would be a bit easier for me considering I did it last year as well, but let me tell you...it really doesn't get that much easier. I am still tempted to cheat ALL THE TIME. I have removed every mirror from my room, and thanks to my roommate we have covered up the mirror in the bathroom. There are no excuses. I am fully aware of each time I look in a reflective surface. There's no accidents, only intentional failings. There are times when I tell myself "It's okay to look only at my teeth - I just want to make sure there's no spinach in there. Wouldn't want to make anyone feel awkward trying to decide whether or not they should tell me!" Or "I just need to make sure my skirt isn't tucked in somewhere unfortunate" and things of that nature. Of course, they're all lies I was telling myself to justify looking in the mirror. It is truly a battle, but thankfully, God is so patient with me and every day he is giving me the grace to work against this. 

In all honesty, I had a very different reaction the past couple weeks than I thought I would. The first few days it was easy to not look in mirrors, that was until I realized that I literally didn't want or care to see what I looked like because I didn't want to know how horrifying I looked. Then I realized that was not the way I needed to be thinking. I started realizing that so much of why I put on makeup and do my hair is for ME, not for other people, and certainly not for the Lord. I like looking at myself in the mirror, but only when I look "put together" enough. Only when I look the way I want to look. It is a way to tell the world that I'm not just some ordinary girl. But I don't need exterior things to tell people that. Like Cayce said last week, this mindset is all very focused on yourself and the way others perceive you. So I asked the Lord to start using this challenge to help me focus myself more on Him. To dress for him, and to let my natural beauty shine through the way he intended it to be, even if some days I do have spinach in my teeth and my hair is unkempt. He started revealing something to me which has helped me each day these past two weeks and been a great meditation for Lent. It is an excerpt from one of my favorite stories, A Little Princess, and it says this: 

"Whatever comes," she said, "cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it."
- Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess

I'm sure this passage speaks for itself. It has been so powerful in reminding me that even though I may not feel like a princess on the outside or be dressed in cloth of gold, that has no bearing on who I am. I am made in the image and likeness of God, and I reflect His beauty, no matter what I am wearing. If I desire to present to others the true reflection of God's beauty that I am, then I have to allow that to shine through regardless of whether or not I am wearing makeup or whether my outfit matches. Regardless of if I have scars or pale skin or my hair looks like a lion's mane.

Because "I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses. All of us. Didn't your father ever tell you that? Didn't he?"  

In the Father's Love, 

Clarissa