I am not sure if it is a “girl” thing, but I know that as a little girl, I loved fairy tales. I have watched as Sophia has come to love her “princesses” as well. So I am beginning to think that there is something in us females that has been wired to believe in fairy tales. We all want to live one, that is for sure 🙂
For the past few days, I have been thinking about a scene from “Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs”. Let me take you to it:
Once upon a time there lived a lovely little princess named Snow White. Her vain and wicked stepmother, the Queen, feared that some day Snow White’s beauty would surpass her own. So she dressed the little princess in rags and forced her to work as a scullery maid. Each day the vain queen consulted her magic mirror, “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”… and as long as the mirror answered, “You are the fairest of them all,” Snow White was safe from the Queen’s cruel jealousy.
The Queen longed for the mirror to always respond that it was she, who was the fairest. Mirrors have a way of telling us things. Some we want to know – like when we look attractive. Some we may want to overlook – like some new wrinkles showing up. But a mirror will always speak.
This morning I am thinking about another mirror….
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:22-24 NIV).
God’s Word is also a mirror. In reading His Word, we see ourselves in the truth of His Word. We see exactly how we are to live our lives. When we hear & do not do what His Word tells us, we are exactly like the one who would see themselves in a mirror & not remember what it is they looked like. We are told further….
“But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it”“he will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1: 25 NIV).Â
When we see ourselves through the filter of His Word, apply it, change, obey it – then we find freedom. It is there that we are blessed.
James uses the analogy of a mirror to show us that if we just “glance at the Word without corrective action”, it is of little use. “The sense here is of an intense looking into Scripture for the purpose of self-change. The exercise is one of careful attention to learn what is wrong & to discern what ought to be done to correct it.” (from the New American Commentary on James page 96).
If you remember from Snow White….the Queen’s downfall was when the mirror told her the truth, a truth that she did now want to hear. That truth was that there was something lacking in her – gentle grace. Rather than taking that truth & applying it to her life, she was filled with anger & hatred. And so her downfall began.
Today may I not only hear the Word but apply it to my life. May I allow His truth to change me. I read this quote somewhere. It is a good motto to live by:
    “Apply yourself to the Word so you may be able to apply the Word to your life.”
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