Just The Way You Are

     I haven't blogged in almost a month. Sorry.  The holidays hit our house hard and fast.  From cooking the entire Thanksgiving meal like my Granny does and decorating for Christmas, my hands have been full.  But I read something this morning that I just had to share.  In all the hustle and bustle of the season, my prayer is that we not only remember the reason for this season- JESUS but also who we are in Him.
     This excerpt from Beyond Me  by Norma Kvindlog and Esther Lingren Anderson is part of My Daily Sanctuary readings in my NIV Bible. It is entitled Just The Way You Are: Acceptance, Spiritual Growth, Family

God's people tend to suffer a lot of false guilt over sins they have already confessed and received forgiveness for.  The big ones and the minor ones.  Even attitudes.  We long to live lives that are beyond reproach.  We want to be perfect partners, perfect children, perfect friends, perfect Christians, perfect people.  But we are not always empatheticand forgiving.  We have trouble demonstrating unconditional love.  We are not always kind.  Sometimes we even have temper tantrums.  And sometimes we are blanketed by depression.
     Why do we have all the struggle?  Why is it so difficult to see ourselves as God sees us--on the one hand, sinners who cannot be good enough to please him; on the other hand, his beloved children, forgiven and restored?  One reason, as we've discovered, is that we're often preoccupied with the opinions of other people rather than with God's.  We've adopted this world's standards.  We judge ourselves and others by those standards, forgetting all that the Father has to say about us.
     But as we begin to recognize and accept our standing in God's value system, we can be free from the struggle for self-esteem, the maneuvers to bolster our egos, the fight for our place in the pecking order.  Freedom will come when our views of ourselves don't depend on looks, physique, or intelligence we inherited, the family we were born into, the size of our bank account, or even how others treat us.  A general principle is: When you feel comfortable about yourself, about who you are and what you have, you can direct your focus away from yourself and toward others.