Mirror, Mirror on the wall....

...who's the fairest one of all?

Oh the mirror, the mirror, the mortal mirror! I have had days when I've looked in the mirror and thought, oh my, I don't like what I am seeing there. I think there are probably so many ridiculous times in our life when we have looked in the mirror and picked out all the flaws in ourselves. I've raised 4 daughters and it is amazing to me how each one of them can pick out some little thing or another in themselves that they see as a flaw. Of course as their mother I've had to look really hard to see the same flaw as they are seeing! Oh the pimples of teen-age years. Or those little hairs that stick out in your part because they're shorter than the rest of your hair and no amount of hairspray will make them stay down. Or those dreaded freckles. Or the eyebrows that just aren't right.
Then you hear other women talking and hear things like my nose is crooked, my forehead is too long, my eyes aren't the right color, my complexion is bad, my hips are too wide, I'm too short, I'm too tall, I'm too fat, I'm too skinny. Then we start comparing. My hair isn't as nice as hers. I wish I had a dazzling smile like hers. How come she can grow such nice nails. Why does she always look so good in everything she wears? How can she stay so thin when she eats like that! If only my eyes were that color.
I'm certainly no one to talk. I have been pretty hard on myself when I've looked in the mirror. It's hard when you're young and you don't think you measure up and then somewhere along the way when maybe you might have measured up it passes you by in such a rush the next time you look your age is starting to work against you and your body is going downhill fast! haha!
It seems like when our trials are the hardest, at least for me, were the times when I was hardest on my personal appearance. Satan just wants to get his digs in whenever and wherever he can and he loves to work on us when we're down. Sometimes I think it would do well to take all the mirrors out of the house and never look!
But then I start to thinking in spiritual terms. I think of people I know that by the world's terms would not be considered beautiful, but they are so full of light and joy that they radiate clear through and they are beautiful. Then I think of how the prophet Isaiah described the Savior, "...he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." (Isaiah 53:2) That is hard to think of the Savior that way, but he was willing to descend below all things so that he could rise above them.
That helped me to start focusing more on developing inner beauty, because after all, we get to leave this mortal body behind and get a better one someday. But the beauty we receive then will surely be based on the beauty that we have developed inside our spirits. Now that the Savior is a resurrected being it says that His glory will be so great that the sun will hide it's face at His coming. Wow, now that is developing inward beauty! I've also heard that as we become more like Him that His image will be in our countenances. That is a super amazing thought!
But when you really get down to it, no matter what you or I look like, our bodies are really a very amazing thing. Take the eye for instance. It is said to be the "sense organ of radiant power." When you look at someone you usually look first at their eyes. When you communicate you look into their eyes. Why is that? In several places in the scriptures it tells us; "The light of the body is in the eye..." and then goes on to describe that if we keep our eyes focused on the Lord's work our whole bodies will be filled with light and there shall be no darkness in us. (D&C 88:67) That's a pretty amazing promise. And when you see people with radiant spirits you see the light in their eyes. Their eyes tell the whole story!
Another great promise we have in the scriptures is that "the Lord looketh on the heart"...and that man looks on the outward appearance. Hopefully our hearts are in the right place when the Lord looks there! And hopefully we can reverse that lesson and learn to look on other's hearts first before we look at the outward appearance. That can be a real challenge. But consider this remark by John Bytheway: "We don't love our grandmas because they're supermodels." So true! And what can be cuter than your own little grandma?!!
There was this little poem going around and around on email forwards a few years ago and I really liked it:

The Beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure she carries or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart. The place where love resides. The beauty of a woman, is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, the beauty of a woman with passing years--only grows.
Isn't that sweet? And who can deny the truth of it?


I also thought these beauty tips from Aubrey Hepburn are good food for thought:

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed.
Never throw out anybody.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

One of my favorite scriptures tells us just how mortal and deceptive those mortal mirrors really are:
1 Corinthians 13:12 "For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now we know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

The Queen, who said, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?" became so focused on herself and her own outward beauty that she was overcome with pride, selfishness, and jealousy, and ended up in her own self-destruction.
Then the mirror replied, there is one fairer than you, it is Snow White. If you put a spiritual analogy on that, the name alone says it all. Snow White. She was pure, she was kind, she was full of love. She had no hate or jealousy or meanness in her. It was the pureness of her soul that made her beautiful, and she was not even aware that she was beautiful.

Hmmmm, there is a great lesson to learn from Snow White.