Do you know, have you heard the good, no, great news? There is nothing that you could ever do that would make you anything less than lovely and lovable.
There is a great verse in the Bible that says: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:38-9)" This is one of the shining parts of this book, and there are many. Unfortunately, though, some parts of the Bible have been interpreted to mean that in our natural state, we as humankind are sullied or incomplete, even shameful. This leaves us forever reaching, forever grasping for something or someone to make us feel better about ourselves. Our relationships become needy and clingy. We search for our next "hit" of happiness as if it were a drug. We become as Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in Wayne's World: "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"
What if, instead, you and I came into this world as beautiful, shimmering people of the Light, people of Love. What if, instead of being separate from the Almighty, we are nothing short of expressions of Her (or Him if you prefer) being introduced to this planet. Instead of striving and striving to prove ourselves worthy of God's love, we lay that to rest and instead realize that we already are what we want to be. It's just that we have believed heretofore in lies. We've bought into false messages and beliefs that we have encountered in our daily lives through the media, through religion, through other people. For this we need not beat ourselves up, no more than a little girl who, playing out in the rain, returns inside covered head-to-toe in mud. What does the parent do? She removes the little girls clothes, wipes off her face, arms and legs, and they both burst into a ball of laughter.
So it is with us still-learning but not incomplete creatures. If there are beliefs or false messages that have been caked onto us like mud, we have the opportunity time and time again to wipe off the mud and there, underneath it all, is a shimmering expression of Love in the world. The same thing goes with our "sins," or things we feel we have done wrong. These do not define us. In fact, we have the opportunity to do something that may be completely foreign to us: to be kind and forgiving to ourselves. Maybe you grew up in an atmosphere that, instead of being kind to yourself, taught you to be hard on yourself. Maybe beliefs re-inforced in you that you were bad at the core. But now we are adults and we have the power to give ourselves positive messages and to show ourselves self-love. There is another Bible verse that states "Love your neighbour as yourself." There was a time when I solely concentrated on the first part of that verse. But really, how can we truly love others, those close to us or the stranger, if we first do not love ourselves? If we love ourselves, our relationships with other people need not be clingy or needs-based. Rather, they can be relationships where we are Bringers of the Light and Love to one another.
What are the names that you call yourself? "Too fat, too thin," "Dumb, bookworm," "Ugly," "Unloveable." Whatever they are, today is the day that you can start over.
You are nothing less than a shimmering expression of God, of Light and Love in this world.
You are Lovely.
You are Loveable.
You are Good Enough Just The Way You Are.
With much love,
Mark Andrew
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