I've just finished this amazing short book and for those who might be interested in buying the book, I wrote a review on Goodreads:
"This is an excellent short book for any woman struggling with what they see in the mirror and how we perceive ourselves.
Arianna Walker looks at the rear-view mirror of the past, the dressing room mirror of the masks we wear, the full length mirror of self-image, the dance hall mirror of comparison, giving practical tips on how to beat self-doubt that starts with our thoughts. Biblically based, she discusses and uses testimonies of others as well as Bible passages that we can root our self-belief in rather than believing the lies we tell ourselves.
I was privileged enough to hear her speak on the rear-view mirror at the Detling Summer Christian conference and her use of analogies and images really help to understand concepts such as forgiveness, moving forward and poor self-image.
Every woman needs the compact mirror of God's word and this book!"
This book was so simply written but completely changed my outlook to my thoughts and the power they have over us. I was under the impression you couldn't control them!
My thoughts seem to let me down quite a bit really - I'm often negative about myself or worrying incessantly about what I have said, what others have said to me or how I should say things in the future! Lots of worry! But reading this book reminded me of all the good things I have learnt over the years, all the people that have been integral in my growing as a Christian and as a person.
I have been very lucky in that I became a Christian when I was 8 and it came naturally to me to speak to God like He was right next to me and knew everything about me anyway, so I decided I may as well share everything! Being quite a lonely but overly outgoing child (to mask the loneliness), I really needed a friend like God who was always there and loved me unconditionally. My childhood/teenage church perpetuated the idea of church as stale and irrelevant to the local community so by the time I left for university I had already left the church but still prayed to God. I was so lucky in who I met at university, during my course and through a local church, that I grew and grew as a Christian.
Those few years helped me feel secure in who I was in God - I knew how God viewed me through a wonderful one-to-one study I did with the student pastor at my university church. But reading this book, made me realise how much of my self-belief and confidence had been stripped away. Things I did well at my university church (lead a student home group, help lead children's ministry etc) I haven't done well at my local church. Being knocked back in my job and having tough times with people I thought were better, has really shaken who I am in God. I have been too quick to believe the things people say to me (and only the negative!) rather than the Bible.
One chapter in this book is dedicated to the compact mirror - the one we ladies sometimes carry in our handbags - that Arianna Walker names "the kind of mirror God's word is to our lives; always there inside our hearts in case of emergencies, or simply because we want to check something - easy to get to, often used. Just like you can't see your reflection in a mirror unless you look in it, you can't see your true reflection unless you look in the true mirror that is his word." When reading this chapter I realised how much I had stopped believing what good people were saying to me and what the Bible tells me. We can read the Bible all we like but if we don't act on it or believe it for ourselves it becomes like any other book.
James 1:22-25
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
I realised I had been looking in the mirror of the Word and forgetting what I read about God's love, freedom for those who love Him and His forgiveness. The way to remembering these things is really quite simple - learn scripture. Learn verses that reveal His truth and can't be argued with. Any doubts, worries or anxieties that come to mind can be shut off with these verses of truth. I have memorised funny verses too (2 Kings 2:23-24 is always a good one!) and these help to keep things less serious!
I will finish on a song from 'The Bodyguard' with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner:
"Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to him belong
They are weak but he is strong."
I do not know about the mirror analogy but had learned what you talked about. The Lord got hold of me and helped me to realize the simplicity in first understanding anything with the word self in it should raise red flags. How are we to esteem something we are to die to, self, daily. The image we need in our hearts and minds is one of humble existence before the throne of God in the knowledge He loved us so much as to allow His own Son to die for our sins, to take our punishment. The Lord taught me, it is not complicated or requires some formula, but the basic knowledge of the cross. We are admonished to have our thoughts on the Word of God to meditate on it day and night; these are the thoughts that freed me from a poor “self-image”. When we think of our Lord and His needs we do not think of our own selfish requirements for accomplishments. As King David stated, what is man that God is mindful of him. Yet, God for our delight created us and all we see, so we would understand Him through His Word, His creation and His actions, the cross. Of course, our thoughts will let us down, it is part of our sin nature. The overcoming of it is by the blood of the Lamb, His Word, daily washing away the old and transforming into the new creation of Christ. For far too long I suffered with a “self-image” until I just quit thinking of such things and focused on what did God require of me each day, each hour, each moment. When my thoughts are on how can I do this thing to please God and no one else, nothing else matters, not my own opinion of self or of others. God showed me, instead of what would Jesus do, what did Jesus do, that is our example. It is only when I focused on His Word daily did the image of a child of God form and that is what comes from an eternal force, never wavering by self-doubt. Glad for your post, God bless you.
ReplyDeleteMrs. J.