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June 19, 2007

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall…

By Lydia Rule, RTF Staff Writer

The all-mighty mirror. The average person probably spends a few hours a day staring at their own reflection, wishing their skin was darker, lighter, or smoother. They wonder what they would look like if their nose wasn’t as lumpy, or if their cheeks weren’t peppered with freckles. They fret about the zit that happens to reside in the middle of their forehead and refuses to give up its position. They wish their eyebrows were shaped differently.

I know that this is true in my life. I find myself wishing that I was taller, not-so pale, and that my hair wouldn’t be so stubborn. I wish that my eyes were blue, or maybe some other color besides hazel-green. I would like it if my skin wasn’t so pimple infested. I would like to have more obvious cheekbones and longer eyelashes. Hey, I would just like to look my age for once instead of being guessed as 13 all the time!

I didn’t see any harm in worrying hours of my life away about things I couldn’t change. That is, until I read a recent news article. It was about how a chemical called Agent Orange was affecting children in Vietnam. You can read the article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070614/ap_on_re_as/vietnam_agent_orange.

I wanted to cry. There was a little girl who had no eyes. Little boys whose heads where shaped into odd, hairy lumps. Another little girl whose legs would never be straight. Other children had eyes that bulged out from their face.

After I looked at the pictures, my only thought was how beautiful these children are. They suffer, but they still smile. They still can laugh and be joyful. They didn’t deserve their handicaps, but they were strong and brave enough to handle what most people couldn’t.

I had nothing, absolutely nothing to complain about. Forget about me and my selfish time with a mirror. Instead of picking at my physical faults, I should have been praising God that I have eyes, that I can walk, that I haven’t lost my hair to cancer, that I am healthy, that I am who I am. And the next time I look in a mirror, I want to see what I have been blessed with, and not what I wish I had.