June 18 – Proverbs 27-29

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Proverbs 27-29. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word. Also above in the tabs is a link to the Bible reading plan.

 

Photo Credit: Microsoft Clip Art

Every morning it is typically one of the first things I do. If you are like me you probably do it some time as well. You stumble out of bed, head off to the bathroom and look at your face in the mirror. The mirror shows a reflection of how well you slept the night before. Depending on the length of my hair it also shows me how crazy and disheveled I must look.

Mirrors are very useful. They allow us to see what others are seeing in us. They allow us to groom and prepare ourselves for the day. The allow us to see parts of ourselves that we cannot see with our own eyes. We can see our own face, our necks, and our backs all with the use of a mirror. They help us know how we look or even to investigate something we have felt, but could not see, but certainly know it is not supposed to be there.

Solomon compares the heart to a reflection … “As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.” (Proverbs 29:19 NLT) Sadly when things go bad, and a negative reflection is given it never happens in a controlled environment. In a controlled environment many are able to cover their true desires and motives. But in an uncontrolled environment, when things seem to get out of hand, when surprises arise, it is then that the true person is reflected.

In a previous life I used to work for a lawn service. One day we were doing some landscaping and I was running a flower bed edging machine. I got into some roots that killed the edger and when I went to restart it I accidentally put my hand on the muffler missing the piece where I normal found my grip. Immediately I had burnt my hand pretty badly. My reaction was not filled with cursing, but was not without the complaints. One of my co-workers came to me later amazed that I had not dropped a few f-bombs in reaction to the pain as he shared he would have. He asked my why. I was able to share my faith because of my reaction to the uncontrolled environment. I simply shared that because cursing was not a part my normal conversation, when the uncontrolled environment presented itself, my true person was reflected in my actions.

Examine your person, examine your life, what reflection are people seeing when you enter an uncontrolled environment? What would your heart reflect about you? Would you be proud or would you want to run and hide?

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