Impressed?

First impressions might just be more important than you’ve realized.  In your everyday life, you make all sorts of firsts impressions on people, but being a single person seems to add an extra element of consequence to the first impressions we make on people.  You never know where an opportunity to find the love of your life might lie––whether it’s through direct contact, or by way of a third party, like someone you meet who might introduce you to the person you end up spending your life with.  The way you present yourself in those first moments––your smile, your words, your overall appearance––can make or break you.  As much as we would like to think otherwise, there are no do-overs.  There are, certainly, second chances, but that first impression is always there, and it can damage things beyond repair.  
     
As I’ve gotten older, I have had more time to learn and observe the effects of first impressions––both in my own life and in the lives of others.  One instance, in particular, stands out in my mind.  
     
When I was about twenty-five, I dipped my little toe in the strange, wonderful world of being a Sample Lady.  My official title for my three-day gig at two of the local Wal-marts was Axe Angel.  Yes, you read that right.  I was an Axe Angel.  As in Axe Body Spray and Body Washes.  The product line that bills itself as making men absolutely irresistible to women.  I stood at a table for four hours with a display of body washes, trying to get people to buy my wares.  First of all, standing in one place for hours isn’t as easy as one might expect.  Add to that the fact that I was trying to peak people’s interest in a product that seems to have a very limited target market, and things got even trickier.  I wasn’t handing out tasty little samples of food.  I wasn’t even passing out coupons to try and ingratiate myself with passersby.  I had nothing except me, my Axe Angel tee-shirt, a cardboard display cabinet set up on a card table, and my charm.  My first impression.

Four hours, three days.  I got smiles and questions.  I got dirty looks and scornful comments.  And I got bored and discouraged.  What to do when faced with boredom and discouragement?  Add a little bit of mischief.  I changed my first impression.  How exactly?  I added a British accent.  Suddenly, people seemed much more interested in what I was trying to sell them.  My smile and my charm went that much further, simply on the merit of the way I sounded when I opened my mouth.  People stopped to chat and ask questions, first about me, and then about the product I was trying so hard to convince them to buy.  And one of those people just happened to be a really nice-looking guy who decided I was worth asking out. 
     
Me, my smile, and my fictitious British self.  
     
My first impression.
     
Sadly, I had to confess to him later that evening, over the phone, that I was really a local girl who had just tried on a London accent for the afternoon.  I suppose it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that I had to convince him that I was worth a second look, a second chance.  That my second impression could really be just as good as my first––maybe even better.  He agreed to meet me for coffee, and I even had the chance to meet his adorable son, but by then, the damage was done.  I had made my first impression, and it was one he couldn’t forget.
     
I had made the impression, incorrect as it was, that I was a liar.
     
At the risk of overusing the word, the impression the experience made on me was an invaluable lesson.  As we make our way through our days, crossing paths with countless people, we need to keep in mind that every contact we make is a first impression.  It is an opportunity.  We have the power to make or break it.   
    
Just as important as the impression we make as single people is the impression we give as Christians.  Our actions and our words are the first––and sometimes the only––opportunity we have to show the love of Christ.  Whatever we do, wherever we go, we are leaving people with an impression of our beliefs.  Just what are we saying in those first few moments?  Be open, be honest, and that first impression can change the future.