Do you ever have those? Fat days? When you swear that your jeans fit tighter, you’re baking a muffin top over the waistband, you’re taking up far more space than usual? What’s the deal, you wonder? Yesterday, you felt fit and thin and ready to walk the runway during fashion week. Did that extra slice of cheese or handful of French fries or scoop of ice cream really make that much difference from one day to the next?
Actually, no, it didn’t.
I read a study once (in Glamour Magazine 2009 – I searched and searched for the link, but it’s been removed – sorry. But I really really did see it) that did a “fat days” experiment. It concluded that there are no such things. Your body does not change that drastically from one day to the next.
But it feels like it, doesn’t it?
This is a telling example of perception, namely, how you see yourself.
Some people have perceptions of themselves that are far higher than how other people perceive them.
Others have perceptions of themselves that are far lower.
I have two comments about that.
First, both are a form of pride, and therefore sin. (If we’re getting down to brass tacks, it’s true.)
Second, which relates to the first, the only perception about ourselves we should concern ourselves with is God’s.
So how does God see us?
Well, first, we are His creation. That’s saying a lot. As a bumper sticker that my grandmother used to have hanging on her refrigerator reminded us: God don’t make no junk!
Second, though, we’re fallen, sinners, separated from Him.
Third, we’re valuable. So much so that He gave His life for our redemption.
Furthermore, we’re capable and strong. He equips us to live amidst a decaying world and promises us that one day, we’ll live with Him in a perfect place made especially for us.
Finally, we’re beautiful royalty, a bride preparing herself for marriage to the King of Kings.
All these things we are because God made it so, not because we’ve done anything to deserve it.
These facts should not only transform our perceptions of ourselves, but also of other people, effecting how we treat them.
That’s what I think, anyway. How do you see it?
1 comments:
I try and see it the way you do. It's difficult sometimes. It's weird how one day I can feel nice and fit, then the next, I feel like a big tub of goo.
Darn devil whispering in my ear. "shoo!"
It's tough. The devil knows our weaknesses and plays on them! "Grr." Good thing I got a big God on my side, Right?
And not to mention great friends.
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