EquippedMama

We are so excited to announce our newest resource, Exchanging Mirrors: A Call to Embrace Your Gospel-Given Identity is releasing this August! This book is a topical study on 1 Peter and is written in response to the Empowerment Movement’s brand of Christianity.

We hope you find this new resource helpful regardless what season of life you are in. This week, we are thrilled to share a snippet from the introduction as well as our front cover. Enjoy!

Introductions matter.

It is likely that you don’t remember every person to whom you’ve been introduced. Some people are gifted with remembering names and faces; others struggle. However, if you know you need to make a positive first impression for an interview, date, or important networking opportunity, you prepare thoroughly.

This probably means you carefully select an attractive, tailored outfit. You style your hair and put on your makeup with special attention. You brush your teeth and wear a subtle but pleasing perfume.

Regardless of how carefully you prepare your physical presentation, your actions and words are of even greater importance. For an interview, you give a firm handshake and meet the facilitator’s gaze with confidence. For a date, you might come up with a clever conversation starter or quickly compliment the other person. First impressions make a difference.

In our social-media-crazed culture, we are given the opportunity to create a first impression through an online “reflection” of ourselves. Using filters and screens, we can edit out our flaws and present our prettiest, most polished, and most powerful version of ourselves. We construct a beautiful front regardless of whether it reflects the reality of our lives.

We are constantly encouraged to build a better version of ourselves, to motivate ourselves toward greatness, beauty, and success. For these goals we are also given mirrors. These mirrors tell us if we are living up to our earthly potential and promise to “motivate” us when we fail by using tactics like guilt and shame, and otherwise false assurances.

Using these mirrors, we develop our introductions. We use big words to make ourselves feel powerful. We write our resume. We are not merely mothers; we are educators, homemakers, and social media influencers. We are no longer content to simply be wives; we are business partners, managers, and entrepreneurs. We sound purposeful and fulfilled because this makes for a great introduction.

Unfortunately, Christians are just as drawn to such false reflections as non-Christians. As Christian women, many of us have fallen so deeply in love with mirrors that we have been duped by one of the most dangerous reflections yet.

This mirror tells us that we are beautiful, strong, and worthy, that Jesus wants us to feel loved and lovely. This mirror is dangerous because it becomes an end in itself. As we fixate on the reflection of the better, more powerful, more religious version of ourselves, we miss the beauty of reflecting Christ. We fix our attention on how other people look at us rather than if we are accurately reflecting Christ’s attributes and glory. This mirror appears harmless, but its reflection has a sinister effect. This is the mirror of empowerment.