The Parable of the Mirrors
 

A peddler stood in the city square and shouted, 

"My merchandise can change your life!"

A crowd quickly gathered, and the peddler

displayed a cart full of mirrors,

"Preposterous!" cried the crowd.

"How can mirrors change our lives?"

Most of the people scoffed and walked away.

But three women stayed to take a closer look.

Each finally decided to buy a mirror.

The first woman bought a small, fancy mirror.

"I do not want to look

at myself," she thought as she walked home.

"So the mirror will have

to change my life from another room."

She mounted the mirror in an

unused study where it was soon covered

with dust and cobwebs. As she

walked home, the second woman said to herself,

"I will not waste my time

looking into this mirror.  It will have to change

my life as I carry on my duties.

She mounted her mirror in the hallway where she

glanced at it occasionally.

"If a mirror is to change my life,"

the third woman thought, "I must get

as much out of it as I can.”

She mounted the mirror in her room and

stared into it expectantly each morning.

Soon she began to notice

when her hair was out of place, so she combed it carefully. 
 
She observed blotches of old makeup on her face, 

so she washed them away.

She saw that her dresses were torn and

Plain looking, so she mended

them and added lace and color.

Soon others began noticing the old woman

who was using her mirror.

Her neighbors invited her to tea;

she was visited by new friends;

she was courted by the most eligible bachelor

in town, whom she eventually married.

One day the changed woman met the other two

who had bought life-changing mirrors.  The pair said,

"But our lives have not been changed like

yours has.  Why?"

The changed woman smiled.  "It's all in how you use the

mirror," she said.  "the more often you see yourself the 

way you are, the more you are able to change."

Think of one of those mirrors as a Bible.

The first woman represents

the kind of person who buys a Bible

just to say she has one.  The

second woman symbolizes the person

who has a huge family Bible on the

coffee table so that those who see it

will think she is a religious

person.  But the third woman stands

for the Christian who reads and

studies God's Word to learn what

is wrong with her life and how to

change it.