From the Outside in

During my childhood, my dad told my brothers he had a secret way of knowing when they were lying to him. He told them that when a little boy lies, their eyes have letter “Ls” in them. All my dad had to do was look into their eyes to know that they were lying. Confession was easy. This method worked for my dad for a long time, heehee.
Our eyes can reveal much about people! For a long while, my eyes were fixed on myself. I constantly thought about how I looked to others, what they thought of the words I used, and what I could do next to satisfy my wants and needs. I also thought far too often about my faults: what they were, the shame of having them and how to get set free of them. I couldn’t get rid of my problems no matter how hard I tried.
When I spoke with God about this lack of getting what I wanted when I wanted it, He showed me a picture of me. Not the picture I had painted in my mind, though. He showed me a picture of me with a closeup of my eyes. There was a picture of ME right in the middle of both pupils. Eeks!
God spoke to me about idols. By setting my gaze upon myself, I had become my own idol. When we think about ourselves most of the time (positively or negatively), we take our eyes off of Jesus. This really startled me and broke my heart. I immediately repented and changed my ways with God’s grace.
I thought it was okay to do much self-analysis under the canopy of “making myself better”. I’ve since learned that the only one who knows how to make me a better me is the one who created me. God knows how to gently and beautifully sculpt me into the likeness of His Son, Jesus.
It’s a funny thing, as soon as I set my eyes on God everything started working better. Communication opened up to Him again. Problems faded or were resolved, the crazy striving to be good stopped, and I started noticing others around me. It became a joy to selflessly be involved in other people’s lives again.
Since this time, I’ve looked into the mirror a time or two. I like what I see. Instead of a picture of me in my eyes, I see a sparkle of little-girl delight. God is at work in me!
Philippians 1:6 NKJV
…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;