You're Looking at the Wrong Reflection

My post cIt's funny how God lines things up in your life. I recently was talking to a friend about how I view myself and that I don't always like what I see in the mirror. We tend to look at ourselves and we see wrinkles and the extra weight we've put on. We see that gravity isn't always good to us as we get older. We judge ourselves by what we see in the mirror and what we think others see when they look at us. Too fat, too skinny, too old, too dark, not dark enough, hair too short, hair too long, clothes not fancy enough, clothes too fancy, our smiles, our teeth, our eyes, we wear glasses; so many judgements we put on our own bodies. Why do we do this? Why do we assume that we are viewing ourselves the way others do and honestly why does it matter how others see us? Why do we put all this additional pressure on ourselves and allow ourselves to think so poorly of the temple God has created. We are all made in God's likeness. Genesis 1:26 says " Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness". So why are we so hard on ourselves and why do we allow such low self esteem to play such a vital role in our identity. After all, are we our appearance or are we so much more than what we look like? If God created us in His image then we are made perfectly the way He wanted us to be made. He doesn't make mistakes and He doesn't make junk. So why do we allow the world to tell us how we should look and who we are based on the perspective of the world? 
  I am still on my Bible reading journey and I am in 1 Samuel. Saul has lost favor of God and Samuel has been sent to Jesse and his family to anoint the next king. Samuel is looking at Jesse' sons and the first one he sees, Eliab, is of big burly stature and he immediately thinks this is God's pick. This is the one that will be anointed. God had a different outlook though. He basically told Samuel don't worry about their looks. That's not what I'm interested in. I am interested in their hearts. God ends up picking David the smallest brother, the shepherd. David ends up going to be in Saul's service. There was a battle that comes up and David ends up going against a giant named Goliath and again everyone thinks David is too small. David kills the giant with a rock and a slingshot.  It's funny even in the old testament people were judged by their looks and people even judged themselves by how they looked. So many told God they weren't who God was looking for because of their flaws. How many times do we do that as well? How many times do we say, "Yep I'm too this or too that, I'm not enough or I don't fit my idea of who I think God can use." That's not how God works. Time and time again in the bible God used those who felt so unqualified for what ever reason and these people did great things in the name of the Lord. It doesn't matter what we look like or what our flaws are. It doesn't matter what others see or what we think they see. What matters is our heart and that we are diligently working at being obedient to God and His word, trying to live for Him and not the world. What matters is what God sees in our heart. As long as our hearts are for Him, there's nothing He can't use us for. Remember things aren't always what they look like cause looks can be deceiving. It's what God sees within us that matters. We need to see ourselves from the inside out and love ourselves from the inside out just as God does. God doesn't look at the reflection in the mirror. He looks at at the reflection of our hearts.

1 Samuel 16:7 "But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Jeremiah 17:10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Proverbs 4:23 "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life."

Proverbs 21:2 "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart."

Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."