Mugged By The Mirror Series

Identity Theft…Mugged by the Mirror

Are you at risk of having your identity Mugged by the Mirror

Know what God Knows

See how God sees

Love who God Loves

Reflect God’s Glory

Slide

Good morning.

We are continuing our series this morning called Identity Theft

Last week we spoke about how we can be Robbed by our relationships when we look for our identity, look for who we are, in the midst of our human relationships.

This morning we are going to be talking about how we can be mugged by the mirror if we seek our identity in our outward appearance and what we can do to overcome that.

Slide

True Beauty

Recently there was a reality TV show called True Beauty looking for America’s most beautiful person.

But what they didn’t tell the contestants was that they were not only measuring outward beauty but also inner beauty.

They would secretly tape these individuals in situations where they could see if they were beautiful on the inside or just the outside.

They would tape conversations that they had talking about the other contestants.

They would put them in situations where they would either

show compassion to someone else or

just seek to further their own agenda.

There would be opportunities to just be a good citizen or not.

It was so sad to see many of these “beautiful people” so wrapped up in their outward appearance that they could not even see the ugliness of their lives on the inside.

And I am sure that all of us have run into people that were like this and perhaps we have been this person.

High School

I remember being in High School my Freshmen year.

It is kind of nerve racking that first day of school. I remember going to my first class and seeing who was in my class and seeing this one girl who I thought was just gorgeous.

Well as I went throughout my day, I found that she was in all but 1 or 2 of my classes.

I was thinking to myself, this is going to be a great year.

Now this is well before I was a Christian.

Well, anyway, as the year progressed, I got to know this girl a little better and she was so full of herself and so stuck up that it actually changed the way that I saw her.

When I saw her, I did not see this outwardly beautiful person, but this person that actually became somewhat ugly to me, because what was inside her was coming out.

She may have spent a lot of time working on her outside appearance, but it appeared she spent no time working on what she was on the inside and it really affected how people saw her.

On the flip side, I am sure that many of us have seen people who don’t possess the most cosmetically appealing appearances, but have a beauty that radiates from within that really makes them attractive.

Even though we probably know these things in our head, as we face the mirror, I believe many of us still think to ourselves,

How do other people see me?

Do they think I am ugly?

Do they think I am fat?

Will other people like what they see when they look at me?

We should take care of ourselves

Now, everyone of us wants to look good. That is not a bad thing. We should strive to take care of ourselves. In fact I believe it is proper and godly to care for this temple that the Lord has given us.

But there is a difference between caring for ourselves and our bodies and desiring to change ourselves from who God created us to be solely because we think we will be happier.

If the shape of my face were different, I would be happier

If I had longer legs, I would be happier

If I had a smaller nose, my life would be better.

If I had bigger muscles, girls would like me and I would be happy.

If I were more outwardly attractive, my problems would be solved!

If we are thinking that, we are being mugged by the mirror.

It is hard for any of us to escape this type of thinking because it seems that our whole world system pushes the idea that outward beauty makes life better.

We see it in advertising

We see it in the products that are put forth, (make up and hair care products) We can even see it in the toys that are manufactured.

Barbie

Look at the dolls that kids play with today.

Slide

Barbie dolls have been around since 1959 and Barbie is thin and tall and stylish.

Now I don’t want to put Barbie down, but if Barbie were human, with the length of her legs compared to her body, she would have to be about 7 feet tall and if her torso were really that small, she would have to have about 4 fewer ribs and she would be missing several essential organs.