The new year has brought some opportunities for growth into my life. Once a month I drive to Ballinger and enjoy an evening of fellowship with the women of Grace Fellowship. I call them the Women of Grace and I might add that they are gracious women indeed. We started off the first meeting of the year with the theme “Time Out for Inventory.” As the women arrived, they were greeted at the door and given name tags with little clocks on them made by a crafty lady named Carolyn. We enjoyed a wonderful meal of taco soup, salad, cornbread, and brownies put together by Diana, Carolyn, Mylea, and Me. We had sweet fellowship around a table decorated with many different types of timepieces. When our meal was over we proceeded with the message. It was geared toward encouraging all of us from Galatians 6:3-4 and 2 Corinthians 13:5; to not think we are something when we are nothing, but to examine ourselves. Now I know this passage is talking about spiritual matters but I had to share with the ladies about a mirror my husband gave me for Christmas that magnifies ten times what is normal. I proceeded to tell them how shocked I was when I first looked into the mirror. Prior to this day of revelation, I had no idea of what a bad job time had done on me! Amazingly, after using the mirror every day I found myself gradually getting use to what I saw and becoming convinced I could do nothing to change it. In comparison, I find that I sometimes do the same with my spiritual side. At times I am shocked by what I see in my actions. Again as time passes and I consistently do nothing to change, I become more and more accepting of my sin. I’m afraid the inventory we all did together on Wednesday evening revealed some heart attitudes that needed magnification. One thing I have come to realize since I got that huge magnifying mirror is that if I will deal with the imperfections, while they are little, they won’t get out of hand and cause major ugliness later. So it is with sin in our lives. If we are going to eliminate it, we must deal with it quickly otherwise it will just get uglier. I invite you to get a mirror! And ask yourself, “What’s going on in my life that I’ve been ignoring or making excuses for?” The more we examine ourselves, the more beautiful we become because it is then that we are reflecting the image of our Savior!
