Mirror Image

I have completely changed my route to work within the past few months. At the beginning of the year Kristina was doing really well about getting dressed in time to ride the bus to school but as the year has progressed on she has slowly but surely started missing the bus on a regular basis. I finally threw in the towel and accept the fact that I will need to take her to school every day. I don't mind really. Next year she'll have her license and she won't need me to take her to school anymore so I enjoy the 7 minute ride talking to her.

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As I leave the school and make my way onto the interstate there is a big farm on the right hand side of the road. The house is gorgeous. Almost reminds me of a house that you would have seen during the Civil War. It is two story with the huge white columns lining the front porch. There are black shudders and even a wind direction thing on the roof. The property is lined with a white wooden fence and there are cows and horses as far as the eyes can see. If you look real close you can see a small house towards the back of the property which I would assume is where the farm hand lives. Maybe? I don't know. Just a guess.

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But, at the front of this property, the part closest to the interstate is a huge pond. It is divided up into two sections and covers a good bit of the property. Behind the property is a mini-mountain full of trees and the sky always looms over these trees like it is trying to sneak up on them. As you first begin to see the pond you can see the reflection of the house, then as you blink you begin to see the trees and then as you blink again you see the full reflection of this landscape in the water. It is absolutely breathtaking. I look at this every single day and am amazed by the view every single day.

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Today, it got me thinking about image. When Kristina or Gabe go to stay with friends I always whisper in their ear "You better behave!" I will whisper to Kristina to act like a lady and to Gabe I add "Act like a young man!" Why? Because their actions are a reflection on me as their Mother just as that pond shows the reflection of that landscape.

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We were each uniquely created in God's image. "So God created man in his own image..." Genesis 1:27. We are a reflection of God. When others watch us (and trust me, they do) we are showing them what our Heavenly Father is like. Just as we want our children to behave and say the right things and do the right things and act a certain way because they are a reflection on us as their parents God feels the same way. For every action we have, for every word we say we are a reflection of God.

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I fail at this miserably. I pop off at the mouth when I get frustrated or angry. I walk around some days with my rear-end on my shoulders because I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. But, as I drove into work this morning and looked over at that pond and began to think on my way to work about reflections (and even as I type this blog) I am so convicted of my actions and words. At the end of the day, when I look myself in the mirror I not only want to know that I was the best person I could have been that day but that I was a complete reflection of God! I am the pond and he is the landscape...what do people see in me?