We all know what mirrors do: they reflect whatever is in front of them, good or bad, happy or sad, bound or free, beautiful or not so beautiful.

While in prayer for a prodigal daughter who has canceled her mom, I felt a distinct impression that her mom serves as a mirror to her, and she can’t take, stand to receive, or think about what she sees. Her mom is everything she left behind when she walked away from God: free, righteous, secure in her God-given identity, and in relationship with her Creator while obeying commandments and praying. Her mom is a reflection of her Savior. Her mom’s mirror is more than she can take. She cares about her mom but wants no contact with her because she can’t tolerate the reminders.

Jesus said it this way: “‘For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed’” (John 3:20).

The mirror we are to our prodigals serves a dual purpose: it reflects God and His great love and purpose for them, and it reflects their own sinfulness. Like Isaiah, when he saw the Lord high and lifted up and became overwhelmingly aware of his sin (Isaiah 6:1-5), they are overwhelmed.

Prodigals sometimes choose to live in the streets, in their cars, in proverbial pig pens rather than be close to their pray-ers. They feel constantly judged when they are around them, when in reality they are constantly loved and covered in prayer. They don’t like the mirror.

When alcoholics or other addicts get clean, their drinking or using “friends” disappear. They stop calling them, talking to them, or hanging out with them. They don’t like the mirror.

When prodigals get saved, they sometimes become a mirror for their sinner friends, and those friends are suddenly uncomfortable in their presence.

But deep down, prodigals know the truth, even if they are deceived. Deep down, they do not want us to waver from the truth or compromise. Deep down, they need us to stay the course and believe God and His Word. Deep down, they need us to daily prove what God says is true. Deep down, they want the Rock to continue to be the firm foundation He is to us.

When the time comes that our former prodigals—praise the name of the Lord—are cancelled by their ungodly friends, we can draw them close and be their friends, discipling them prayerfully, reminding them that Jesus “is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24), and praying godly friends into their lives (Ecclesiastes 4:9).

God strategically places us to be mirrors for His kingdom, sometimes to others’ prodigals, but many times to our own prodigals. You may have heard me say before that He gave us our prodigals for specific reasons that only He knows, but one possibility being He knew we wouldn’t give up praying for them to be saved. Another possibility is that we serve as mirrors reflecting Him to them. Just like we can’t give up praying, we don’t compromise our faith to please them, to be in relationship with them, or to make them comfortable. We reflect truth, and that is what will count in the long run.

“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13).