conversations: part two...

Last week when I said that part two would be up the next day, I really meant in a week.

Another conversation Lisa and I had on the way to and from Anchorage was about how so many of us so often play the comparison game. It's the one in which we let others beat us by comparing ourselves to them or thinking they're somehow better in us in some way. It's not really a very fun game so I don't know why we (or I) play it so much.

It occured to me, during our conversation, that when we compare ourselves to others like we do we are really denying our "made-in-the-image-of-Godness." He made us just the way he wanted us and gave us all traits and characteristics that reflect his own. When we wish we were more like someone else or when we beat ourselves up for how we look, aren't we really saying that God's design wasn't good enough?

Now, I am not saying that there aren't things in our lives that we need don't need to work on, 'cause, indeed, there are. I am talking about the things that are beyond our control - a big nose, small squinty eyes, full lips, why we're introverted when we long to be more extroverted, why some of us are more prone to being overweight while others can eat all they want and still stay ripped, etc... Those are the things I am talking about. It just doesn't seem fair, does it?

We need to accept those parts of us that secular American culture rejects. Maybe we need to change our point of view on our "flaws" and start looking at them as beautiful. Maybe we're the lucky ones and everyone else got jipped. Sure, it's easier said than done but wouldn't it revolutionize our lives? I think if we challenge the way we think about and see ourselves our lives would drastically change. We'd become more confident, more alluring, more mysterious, more loving, more lovable, more forgiving of ourselves and others, more gracious, more relaxed, and perhaps most importantly, more "us" - the "us" that God created and desired us to be from the very beginning of time.

I bet if we changed our thinking to be always positive, we would soon find others comparing themselves to us saying, "Wow! She is radiant! She's happy and content with who she is. How can I get that?" And we can tell them, "I was intentionally created by God, the same one that hung the sun and moon and all the stars and named them, the same one that made the mountains and the oceans, the same one that made all the animals and plants. He made all those things and he made you and we are the only part of his creation to whom he gave his very own image. If you firmly and adamantly believe that about yourself and won't let anyone talk you into believing otherwise, you can have the same radiance and contentedness."

I challenge you to write on a post-it, or on your mirror with lipstick or dry erase pens, that you are magnificent, that you are alluring and mysterious, that you are beautiful (or handsome, whichever you prefer), that the stars pale in comparison to your radiance, and that you are excellently made. Write it, recite it, take it in. And soon, I bet, your life will be very different.

This was written more as a reminder of my conversation and more for my own benefit than for anyone else's. I have made a commitment to myself to take the challenge mentioned in the last paragraph. I have made a commitment to loving myself as I am.