The other day, I walked into the Starbucks where I was previously employed cause…you know… “Sometimes you wanna go, where everybody knows your name……” Uh…yeah…anyhoo…when I walked in, I saw my former manager putting up a display so I said “hey…how are you?”(whenever I go in during one of her shifts, we chat). She looks up and responds with, “Hello Alecia, how are you? Oh my gosh! You have lost weight! I mean, you look good but you have really lost weight.” I reply with, “really???” I must have looked shocked because she goes on to say how obvious it is and asks me if I’d tried to. Well, I haven’t but the eating adjustments that I’ve made have, I guess, adjusted my size as well. LOL! In fact, I’ve noticed in the way my clothing fits but when I look in the mirror, I don’t see a change but apparently everyone else does. I told her that I don’t see a difference but it doesn’t bother me that I don’t see it since I wasn’t looking to lose the weight to begin with.
She then s
aid something that made me really think……………..she says, “you know, that must be how people with eating disorders feel! Not that you have a problem, but, you know…they don’t see what we see. We may see that they’ve lost a lot of weight but they don’t see it so they keep believing that they are bigger that what they really are.” Now, that made a lot of sense. When I look in the mirror, I don’t see that I’ve gotten any smaller….I don’t see about me what others see about me. Others can tell! I wore a dress to work today and I was told that I looked super skinny…HA! Uh…I’ve NEVER been or looked (for that matter) super skinny at ANY POINT in my life. LOL! But, again, I didn’t see it. I even went to the staff restroom to be sure that I didn’t….and nope…I still didn’t. TUH!
Back to my point…..
..she made me think about it an entirely different light. There will always be someone (or someones) that sees more about you than you are capable of seeing about yourself. You ever wonder why people treat you a certain way, or ask you to do certain things that you don’t feel you can accomplish? Have you ever been asked to do something and the person asking didn’t even know why they chose you??? Well, sometimes, it’s because they see past your current state and they can see what you are becoming. Often, it takes another person to point out our skills and talents because we will hide behind what we are accustomed to doing. If we are not careful, we will miss the opportunity to step into a new arena. I am convinced that God places people in our lives or just along our path to help cultivate what is within us because otherwise, we’d ruin EVERYTHING.
On the flip side of that, there are times when others can see that you’ve “lost weight”…that you are lacking…that you have lost your passion for what you do. There has been a time or three in the past when I didn’t realize that I’d declined in my desire to do a thing and someone came to me and let me know that they could tell. I’m sure that there have been times when you’ve ignored the reflection in the mirror and chalked it up as the usual. In the same token that He allows others to point out our greatness, I believe that God allows others to help us see what we lack.
The Bible says, in 1 Samuel 16:7, “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” This scripture is from the time that the Lord sent Samuel Jesse the Beth-lehemite because He had chosen a king from amongst his sons. Now, all of Jesse’s older boys were “strapping” young men but NONE of them were the king. The Lord chose David, the smallest, most scrawny of them all (the scripture calls him “ruddy”). This scripture is relevant because, often, WE SEE OURSELVES the way Samuel saw David, “ruddy” and unfit. But we must realize that God sees our hearts…..He places desire in our hearts, even though we are afraid to act on it.
When you look in the mirror, I challenge you to see GREATNESS. When you see YOU, you MUST SEE strength
, beauty, wisdom, capability, determination, and possibility. NOBODY can make you see it but you. Just like, no matter how many folk call me skinny, I refuse to believe, because I don’t SEE it (okay I’m done…..lol). But others do! The same with you……realize too, that sometimes the “physical man” problems begin with the spiritual man. You must feed the spiritual you in order for the physical you to line up. “But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” matthew 4:4 What I mean is, allowing yourself to be fed by God’s word affords you the vision to see yourself as He sees you, or intends for you to see yourself. When you have the spiritual nourishment you need, you will spend less time in the mirror criticizing your collar bone that you can see through your shirt or the extra skin that you noticed hanging from your arms, or how tall or short you are.
It is through God and His word that you can realize that you truly are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalms 139:14) and that you were created in the “image” of God (Genesis 1:27). It is ONLY through God and His word that you will learn that it’s okay to be “peculiar” (1 Peter 2:9), and that it is necessary to be “separate” (2 Corinthians 6:17).
Be encouraged and I pray that you see you the way YOU are to be seen…don’t be afraid of the mirror!
Love y’all!
Ms. A.M.White