A Man’s Child in the Mirror
As I reflect on who I was as a child, I can’t help but focus on the things I allowed to limit me. The reason I can see them so clearly is because my children show them to me everyday.
Granted, my son and daughter reflect the good traits I have, as well; but that’s not what makes me proud when I look into the mirror.
What makes me proud when I look into the mirror is seeing my ability to adjust and adapt to my limitations. Limitations that my father didn’t get around to overcoming in his lifetime. Limitations that, upon becoming a generational stumbling block for me, were primed to cutoff the generational blessings due for my children to inherit.
Yet again, it’s not so much what I see in the regular looking glass that makes my eyes swell with tears as my chest swells with pride. You see, my children are my true reflection. So, as I use my greatest asset (the ability to repent and set a new course from a wrong turn I’ve made) to improve my life, I can see the new course calculating in the spitting images of my son and daughter.
Rather, I can see them processing daddy’s choices to press through the mistakes. I can see them processing the resilience and flexibility needed to get out of bad habits and complacency. I can see them making better decisions after making the wrong decision.
I see my children watching me as I watch them as the collective lot in life improves for their children and their children’s children like two mirrors cascading reflections into infinity.
I see nothing missing and nothing broken. I see once unspoken vices given a voice that shatters generational shackles that came before us; shrouded by a proudness that, in and of itself, is the greatest limitation to overcome. The type of pride that doesn’t confess wrongdoing and digs in to cover up indiscretions is not a good look.
That’s why my actions allow a redefining and refining of what it truly means to be proud. When I look at the mirror reflection of my children, we realign the shattered patterns of the image and likeness of God. This is what we’ve been afforded the chance to re-establish for generations to come.
Reggie Kee of
Ink Well Spoken
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https://level.medium.com/who-do-you-see-in-the-mirror-level-readers-weigh-in-886c3abe560e
