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“I know we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, but what happens when you don’t love yourself?”
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Kevin looked at me and said, “So you are saying that you are a better judge of yourself than God is?”
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“What do you mean?”
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“God loves us so we must be lovable. Who are we to say God is wrong?”
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My heart opened up to a whole new world.
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I had never heard it stated like this before and these words were coming from a man who had been paralyzed in a weightlifting accident. This man had so much joy and peace in him despite losing his ability to walk, I knew he was speaking the truth.
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I knew, maybe for the first time, that joy and peace were possible for me, too, no matter the struggles I had been through.
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What a gift a conversation can be. It can change your life.
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If you have wrestled with self-loathing or self-criticism or negatively judging yourself (guilty), ask yourself: how can I possibly value my opinion of myself over God’s?
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You can change this as you learn to see yourself through God’s eyes. To accept the truth that He loves you more than you could ever love yourself.
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And if God can love you, with all your flaws, missteps, and stumbles, and grant you grace no matter how many times you fall, perhaps your view of yourself is a bit distorted and limited.
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How about pondering this: If He can love me, maybe I’m ok.
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When you own and embody that, the insecurity and self-attack will fade. Your behavior and actions will change to match your new identity.
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You’ll learn to see, if He loves you so much then His plans for you must be good and are certainly better than your plans for yourself.
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When you can allow yourself to surrender your need to control everything and lean into trusting Him – even if your faith is the size of a mustard seed – He will do big things through you.
And it may come in the most unlikely of situations. That’s how good He is.
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… Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:20