In response to my article last month, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who read and responded to me. The encouragement truly blessed me and touched my heart deeply.
As a child, I remember saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? I believed this in my head, and I used it to minimize the pain from kids who were full of anger and insults. However, in my early twenties, I learned that words have the power to hurt emotionally, and can leave lasting emotional scars if not handled properly.
Many people have scars that have been with them for their entire lives. Each scar is embedded in their memory, so they can recall vividly where they were, what color the tablecloth was, and the scent of the room they were in.
Many people can’t stomach a certain smell or place because of a bad memory. I did a 21-day Self Love challenge in our Women’s Ministry at church and this led a woman back to a place she had buried for so many years that she completely forgot about. While working on her mirror assignment, she suddenly recalled an old memory, and called me hysterical the moment the memory returned because the trauma was so intense it felt like it had happened just yesterday. During that time of I did not know we have a mirror in our mind and that is why the memory impacted her son profoundly.
During my Woman in the Mirror conference, my husband, Dr. William Glover, preached on mirrors and shared with the women we have Mirror neurons located in our brains – Mirrors of the mind that are mimicking, imitating and mirroring what we have internalized, experienced or heard. When those memories are recalled later that is the result.
God has given us an amazing gift: the human mind. The ability to learn, reason and choose. It represents who we really are. Therefore, your thinking is what shapes you into whom you are.
A word can also be said to you or over you, and because you accepted the word without realizing it, you have adopted that thought or idea.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7)
If you want to change the woman/person in the Mirror you must work to change the Mirror in your mind. Scripture speaks of the importance of the mind and how it affects every aspect of life. How you think affects your faith, how you pray, and how you interact with people.
Consider looking in a mirror as a practical assignment, list all the things that are self-defeating or negative, and then make another list that is its opposite. Begin speaking and verbalizing this until that becomes what you see.