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By Tanya Wilson

Lately I started noticing that I was spending more time in the mirror.  I have a lighted magnifying mirror that I use to prepare myself for the day.  A slight wrinkle here and a slight wrinkle there seemed to be showing up.  By day two of my staring, I thought I was seeing railroad tracks on my face.  I started changing the lighting, then changing the strength of the magnification, then rubbing more cream, then applying compress, still I could see a slight line here and there.  Panic set in and I started thinking to myself, what I am going to do, I am beginning to have a few facial lines!

With this preoccupation of showing signs of aging, I took to the infomercials on television.  There are at least 50 different products all claiming to do something different.  Some products cover, some tighten and some say they can totally erase the problem.  It all must be true because celebrities are endorsing many of the products, at least that’s what I was telling myself.

Just as I was pulling my wallet out to purchase one of the products, I remembered a sign I had once seen on a cosmetic counter in one of the department stores I was visiting some years ago, which simply said, “define your beauty at whatever stage you are.”

I have always considered myself level headed, and here I was in a full panic over whether I could see a wrinkle or not.  What was I thinking?  Without realizing it,  I had gotten caught up in what society through magazines and television, etc., had defined as beauty.  I had bought into the messaging.

Ashamed at how shallow I was being, I thought about 1 Peter 3:3-4 ESV “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”

Admittedly, the human in me fell into the trap of focusing on whether I was getting a wrinkle or not, when the real focus should have been on who I am in total.

So often, if we are not careful, we can spend our time focusing on things that in the big scheme of things mean nothing.  For me I was distracted by a wrinkle, for others of us, we may be distracted by someone’s opinion of us, or other toxic situations etc.  Whatever it is, it detains us from our goals and our purpose.

Our purpose is why we are here and our time should be focused in that area if we are to move forward in our destiny.  Time out for foolishness, we have work to do.

Tanya is an inspirational speaker and writer living in Charlotte. You can friend her on Facebook or email her at tw360you@aol.com.

Read more by Tanya Wilson:

When Life Throws You A Curve Do You Thrive Or Crumble?