The Catbird Seat

…who’s the fairest of them all?”

“It’s not you, silly girl, so why are you asking?!”

I don’t have a Magic Mirror, but if I did, I think that’s what he’d have said while I was getting ready for church yesterday.

Ever had one of those mornings?

You know, the kind where your hair just won’t do right, you try on 6 different shirts and at least that many skirts or pants, 4 pairs of shoes, 3 different earring selections and you never actually do find an outfit that you like?

I call ‘em “Bad Self-Esteem Days.”

I had one yesterday.

Now, according to my friends and acquaintances at church, I looked fine.

With what little objectivity I could muster, I could see that I looked fine. My hair and clothes were clean and not disheveled; they matched; my make-up wasn’t smeary or looked like it had been applied by a crazy person. I did, in fact, look fine.

I just didn’t feel fine about how I looked.

I hate it when that happens.

So, I finished getting ready and went to church, despite my bad self-esteem. I was dreading church all the way there. After all, I felt pretty bad about myself, and I was going to be seeing many people who might just confirm my suspicions about my appearance.

An interesting thing happened, though.

I got to church and I worshipped. I forgot about myself and got lost in the music celebrating how big and how good and how forgiving and how glorious God is. I really didn’t want it to stop.

In between our Worship service and Sunday School, I got a huge wave of affirmation and love from 3 very dear friends.

Then I spent over an hour talking about and teaching the truths of God. I read the Bible. My class discussed how the Enemy wants us to be defeated. I talked about how God gives us love and life and unity. And how we are victorious.

And I forgot about my outfit. And my hair. And my shoes.

And my bad self-esteem.

And I don’t think I looked in the mirror again for the whole rest of the day, even when I loaded up the girls and went out in public.

It wasn’t because I was trying to avoid my reflection.

I just wasn’t really all that concerned about how I looked.

God is so good, isn’t He?

It seems as though I found the answer to my question for the Magic Mirror after all.

“Fairest Lord Jesus…”

Filed under: General, Catbird, Like a fire, Random Thoughts on September 25th, 2006