My Selfie In The Mirror

Gò0dNews for Everyone

My Selfie In The Mirror

by Nadolyn Lee

Snap. Snap. Snap. The average teen takes 12 to 14 selfies a day. That is like 5,110 a year! You know that verse that says, “For if you listen to the Word and don’t obey, it’s like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like” (James 1:23-34)? I have observed that not just teens but people of all ages have developed the ability to look directly at themselves in a camera and not recognize themselves. In this selfie world, it’s so easy to be someone other than who we are in a photo or video. We literally look into our own image and become unrecognizable with a slight contortion of the lips, a filter to make us appear more glamorous, or a pose that resembles a runway model.

I enjoy selfies! Having a ministry through social media involves plenty of selfies and time spent with a camera in my face. My children tell me I still don’t know what a meme is, but I have a pretty good handle on the selfie. When we take selfies, we must take them with the integrity and character of the Lord. Would God look at home beside you in your selfies?

Our poses, clothing, backgrounds, and items that appear in our selfies can honor our Savior. Since we are created in God’s image, we should always recognize Him in our pics. Long before there were cellphones that allow us to snap a quick selfie, the apostle Paul was blogging about it to the Colossians in chapter 3, verse 10: “…and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him…”

The word “image” in our society crops up all the time. That word for the believer carries much more weight. We are the image bearer of Christ to a world that needs to see more of Jesus. “It’s just a picture,” teens may say, but to a teen who has the knowledge that they are made in the very image of God, that picture says a thousand words.

The idea behind a selfie is convenience and speed, but have your selfies become anything but quick and easy? If you search how to take a great selfie, you will get more than 2.5 million results. People take lots of time preparing for the perfect selfie with makeup, lighting, and angles. Hundreds of shots are often deleted in the process of searching for the

perfect selfie, and then more time is taken to edit. That’s a lot of time spent on a self that God already deemed a masterpiece.

The next time you take a selfie, make sure you recognize yourself as a child of God in the phone, not a stranger who resembles the other billions of selfies teens will take today. Snap with confidence, knowing your image was created in the image of God.

About The Author

Nadolyn Lee is a graduate of Berry College with her Masters and Education Specialist Degree from LMU. She has taught elementary music for twenty-three years in the North Georgia area. Creator of ‘Dirt Road Believer’ YouTube Channel, Nadolyn produces Christian devotions every Tuesday and Thursday. She is an author, songwriter, and director for children’s musical theater in her community of Summerville, GA. She and her husband of eighteen years, Adam, have four teenage children. Nadolyn co-founded and runs the local chapter of Helping Hands Ending Hunger, INC that feeds hungry students and their families over the weekend.