A realistic opinion

It is incredibly hard to live an inspired life when you always second guess yourself or suffer with an inflated self image. Individuals with poor self image convince themselves they cannot. Individuals who think too highly of themselves are eventually exposed as wannabes and run over by the tide. Unfortunately, we disqualify ourselves from the greater things in life with our own unrealistic opinions of ourselves.

I like to offer three simple keys that will help us maintain a realistic opinion of self. These keys help us understand who and what we are, not who or what we think we are. The first key is to remember that you are an individual. You cannot be and you do not have to be like anyone else to be well or do well. The second key is we are one of God’s creations. God was involved and is involved with our lives in a loving, paternal way. The third key is that we are works in progress. We do not have to be perfect today; we have a lifetime of learning and growing ahead of us.

We can feel good about ourselves, even when we struggle with something as long as we have confronted it and developed a plan to overcome it. We can feel good about our chances to succeed because God is with us. Likewise, everyone finds themselves behind the learning curve some times. Individuals have achieved great things and many exhibit incredible talents, but no one is superlative. Thankfully, we do not have to be. We can be ourselves and feel good about the progress we are making day-by-day through discipleship. We can also rest in knowing God is our helper.

It is alright to like ourselves because “he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” and “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 1:4 & 2:10 KJV).