Discussion Starter: Could You Live Without Mirrors?

Kjerstin Guys is a woman who went a whole year without looking in a mirror, including her wedding day. She has written a book about her experience called Mirror, Mirror Off the Wall, but you can get this gist of it from this article on The Daily Beast.

She does not seem to be approaching the issues of self-perception, beauty and crippling insecurity/narcissism from a Christian perspective, at all, but her conclusions are interesting. She decided to put a lot more stock in what her community of friends and family told her she looked like than in believing what she saw in the mirror.

What if our students could take that up a notch? What if those struggling with insecurities about their appearance, attractiveness and likability could put more stock in what God says they look like to him instead of believing their own perception of what they see in the mirror?

It might be worth talking about with your group. Could any of them go a year without a mirror? What would make that hard? Does it appeal to them in any way at all? What would they risk losing? What might they gain?

Consider transitioning from that conversation to a discussion of God’s statement to Samuel that he doesn’t look at the outward appearance – like we do – but at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) You could ask questions like these:

• Why does God care more about our hearts than our outer appearance?
• Why are we likely to be critical of how other people look?
• What kind of wrong conclusions do we reach when we judge others by their looks?
• How does the media influence what we see when we look in the mirror?
• Why is it so important to us to look good – or not to look bad – to other people?
• What do you think God sees if he looks at your heart if you are in Christ?
• What can we do to help each other care a little less about our looks and believe God more when he says we are valuable to him in Christ?