godsguy
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Prayer Requests
GOD IS LOVE!
Posts: 146
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Post by godsguy on Sept 2, 2008 4:01:12 GMT -8
I found read this in my daily quiet-time devotional book and found it very uplifting.
It was was written by a staff of people from student discipleship ministries in Tx.
Amusement parks often have a hall of mirrors that are quite different from the bathroom mirrors in your home. In one, you may appear to be short and squatty like a fire hydrant. In another you look tall and thin. they reflect a distorted view of you. Aren't you relieved you don't really look like that?
What if your parents had placed amusement park mirrors throughout your home, so that every time you passed by, you saw a distorted image? What would you think of yourself? After a while you might start to believe what you saw in the mirror.
Although this does not literally happen, many adults posses an inaccurate self-image because they were raised in an atmosphere that distorted their identity.
When we look at ourselves through God's mirror, we see a creation that's fearfully and wonderfully made.
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Post by bungabali on Sept 2, 2008 20:19:31 GMT -8
I find that as I am healing I see myself differently. I have a more positive image. As a teenager I always thought I looked ugly. Recently I was looking at some old pictures of me and I realized that I was actually pretty. Other people could see it but I couldn't. Now when I look in the mirror I feel that I look a lot better. Nothing really has changed. It's like some kind of inner peace is shining through me. I think this means I love myself.
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godsguy
Full Member
Prayer Requests
GOD IS LOVE!
Posts: 146
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Post by godsguy on Sept 6, 2008 15:55:30 GMT -8
Self-love and confidence in myself, is the one thing I am finding the hardest to accomplish or even improve on. I think this is because I came from a low-income family, and not only was I criticized and put down at home, but as Susan adds to her book, I constantly experienced the same kind of torture from peers and classmates. My clothes were torn and the soles were hanging from the bottom of my shoes, and I didn't always bathe if we didn't have hot water.
I wasn't taught to love myself or even self hygiene. My mother, especially, without actually saying it, put in my head that I could never be good at anything or loved by anyone. I am still working on forgiving all those that have harmed me, but it is not easy when there are so many events to forgive.
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Post by Susan Peabody on Sept 6, 2008 16:09:22 GMT -8
Forgiveness is a process and takes time. I talk about this in my new book The Art of Changing. |
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godsguy
Full Member
Prayer Requests
GOD IS LOVE!
Posts: 146
|
Post by godsguy on Sept 12, 2008 22:29:35 GMT -8
I will find and read it. I just finished "addiction to love" today. I learned more in this one than in the first one I read. It informed me of the addiction but didn't go into a lot of detail about healing and overcoming.
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Post by sobrietythirst on Sept 13, 2008 10:35:01 GMT -8
My anger and resentment is constantly resurfacing. When those who have harmed or hurt me do something to upset me...I find myself mentioning all those transgressions, mistakes. Noting that they can't be trustred..when everything is settled I feel guilty for how I've talked about them. Realizing, I haven't really forgiven.
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Post by bluebird on Sept 14, 2008 9:10:01 GMT -8
hi sobrietythirst.
I remember you began the steps. did you continue? The big book says resentment is the number one offender and that we find fear is woven into the thread of all of it.
I really saw this is my life when I took inventory. I have written about some of it online here.
I found that working the fourth step has helped me to let go of some of it.
I also believe that it is a process just to acknowledge what happenned.
hard to let go of what we can't see.
you are still beginning to see. Its' ok to see. you are becoming strong enough.
once you have seen - the truth will set you free - ask chrissy she's done the work.
xo bluebird
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Post by sobrietythirst on Sept 14, 2008 11:42:08 GMT -8
Yes...I was discouraged because at the time I was beginnnig the first step I couldn't buy an AA 12 and 12...however I have found an online copy and should be restarting soon. I hope I can begin to see because sometime I am so angry and can't even rememeber why. Free? That sounds nice...my loneliness has been driving me up the wall trying to be on constant alert so I don't contact and POA's .
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