The Old Lady In the Mirror

1/12/2022

Written By: Margie Davis

As I have gotten older, it is sometimes hard to grasp that I am actually 63 years old. I don’t “feel” my age (and my husband can confirm that I don’t ACT my age either!) A few years back I was talking about this very thing with Mrs. Terry Bright. She said something so profound, and it has stayed with me. She said it’s because our souls are eternal and so they never age.

And isn’t that exactly what makes us, “US”?

At a recent visit with my mom, I was trying to take a selfie with her, and I couldn’t get her to smile. Do you know why? She didn’t recognize the “old woman” on the screen. She looked right at herself as the camera was turned toward us and said “but who is that?” She was seeing a physical appearance that didn’t “match” what she felt inside!

In years past, I would probably have used this forum to encourage you to love yourself in the New Year by exercising, eating right, etc. If you are old enough to be reading this, you already know how to take care of your physical body. Nothing I can say to you can make you decide to do it. My years of being a professional fitness trainer proved that to me.

You can show up at someone’s house, charge them a fee, create a nutrition and exercise program designed specifically for them, but when you leave their home after their session they can decide to eat junky food and not get up from their chair for the remainder of the day. Spending 1-3 sessions per week with me did not make them as fit as they could have been if the discipline had carried over into consistent healthy habits.

Our spiritual lives are so much like this aren’t they? We can’t just show up to church for one hour on Sunday morning and to one night of small group weekly and be as spiritually fit as we could be if we had consistent daily spiritual habits.

And folks…that spiritual part? That’s the real part! We are ETERNAL SOULS inhabiting a TEMPORARY BODY. NOT the other way around!

So this is where our focus must be!

1 Timothy 4:8 Says “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

I will readily admit that I struggle with my aging self. I don’t always like my reflection in the mirror. I confess that I have poor body image issues that I have struggled with for years. But I am in the Word daily and I’m working on it! I am progressing in my thinking more toward the spiritual and farther from the physical.

I believe that we are to care for our physical bodies because they were created by God Himself. They are His gift to us and should be cared for correctly. But every single one of our bodies has an expiration date. Our spiritual selves are eternal and should become more as the physical becomes less. It is such a relief to finally get that perspective.

What does it mean to have consistent daily spiritual habits? There are the obvious things like prayer and reading your Bible. Those are disciplines that can and SHOULD become part of your daily routine!

BUT where the real change comes is when we begin to actually DO those things we learned while reading and praying! It means going where God calls you to go and doing things God asks you to do. This life is our “practice” for our real life in heaven!

Every relationship and encounter with a stranger trains us to show love even when it’s not easy. Like Jesus did. Every act of obedience teaches us to trust God. Like Jesus did. Every single step we take away from the darkness leads us closer to the light until we get close enough to step completely into it!

I pray that you will have many GREAT opportunities to make healthy spiritual choices in 2022. I know that just like physical choices, sometimes we will fail. Somedays we will eat the “cake” instead of the “salad.” That’s the place where GRACE picks you up and the Holy Spirit will put you back on track.

“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Cor. 4:16-18