A Broke Mirror - By Natalie Bergquist

The other day when I was getting ready for bed after my shower, I ran into a dilemma. I was trying to floss my teeth, but the bathroom mirror was still foggy from my shower and all I could see was a fuzzy silhouette. My image of my reflection was blurry and flawed. I might as well have been trying to use my shadow on a brick wall to floss my teeth. If I were trying to determine what I looked like at that moment with that foggy mirror, my perception of myself would be way off. My eyes looked more like blue and black blurs, and I couldn’t even see where my neck ended and my face began. Trying to determine who you are in our world today can be a lot like this. With the media, magazines in grocery check out lines, peer pressure, and parent and teacher expectations, teen girls hear a thousand different voices telling them who they are and who they should be. It's no wonder the suicide rate in America is skyrocketing. However, most girls’ broken self-image started way before their teen years. Just like I was trying to look at myself through a foggy mirror, they are trying to determine who they are by looking through the broken mirror of our fallen world. The second we enter this world, we begin asking, “who am I?”

I was born into a loving, Christian family with parents that told me that I was loved and cared for me, which is much more than most little girls get, but I was still living in a broken world. I can remember playing with my friend Alyssa on the play structure in my backyard, looking at her, and thinking, why is she so much more mature than me if we’re the same age? I was only five years old and I already was developing a negative self-image. Not one person has lived in this world without experiencing insecurities. It’s just a part of being human, but where do they come from? To find the answer to this question, we must go back to the beginning. When God created Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, they lived in harmony with God and were free from all sin and insecurity. In Genesis 2 it says, “Now the man and woman were both naked, but they felt no shame,” (Genesis 2: 25). They walked with God without anything to separate them from him. Then, a new character entered the stage. Genius 3 calls him “the serpent” but he is most commonly known as Satan or “the devil.” Satan found Eve in the garden in the form of a serpent and “said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

“The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves,” (Genesis 3: 1 - 7). Satan used the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to convince them that God was holding out on them. When they doubted God’s heart towards them and disobeyed him by eating the fruit from that tree, sin entered the world. Shame and insecurities are types of sin. Sin is anything that separates us from God. Satan has been trying to separate humanity from God ever since Genesis 3. He does this through his lies. Most of us haven’t met any talking serpents, but Satan speaks to us constantly throughout our day by inserting thoughts and ideas into our heads that aren’t our own. What do you think when you look in the mirror? If any teen girl answered that question honestly, she would probably say, “I’m too fat, plain, ugly.” I used to flinch and look away every time I saw a picture of myself. We see ourselves this way because Satan has been whispering lies to us; shaping our self-images since before we could even talk. Jesus put it this way, “(Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that (you) many have life and life to the full,” (John 10: 10). Satan wants to steal our hope, joy, peace, self-worth, and even our very lives.

In the book of John, Jesus says, “when (Satan) lies, he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of all lies,” (John 8: 44). The key word in this Bible verse is “liar.” That’s what Satan is. Every hurtful thing that he has told you about who you are and who God is, isn’t true. A lie that Satan often tells me is, “you’re disgusting.” God tells us, “you are beautiful my darling, beautiful beyond words,” (Song of Song 4: 1). That’s the truth. We are beautiful; broken, but still beautiful. Most people think that because they aren’t perfect, they aren’t worthy of love. Even Christians use their sin nature as an excuse for self-hatred. True, the Bible says that we are sinners, (John 8: 44) but it also says that we are created in the image of God, (Genesis 1: 27). We are precious jewels that have been caked in mud. When we’re seen sitting in the dirt on the side of the road, all people see is a muddy mess. Only God can see the jewel underneath everything else, but when we give our lives to him and stop listening to Satan’s lies, he picks us up out of the mud and washes us clean. You’re a precious treasure; a daughter (or son) of the one true king. We have to stop looking through the broken mirror of this world and Satan’s lies and turn our gaze toward Jesus.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about The C.A.N Sisters’ Ministry, leave a comment below, check out my website, or email me at cansistersminstry@gmail.com.