.png)
It is the beginning of a New Year, and for many people that means a time of new beginnings and resolutions.
I have to admit, I am not a big fan of New Year's resolutions. Perhaps like many of you, I tend to start off the year with many grand plans. I usually am going to eat better, exercise more, spend more time reading my Bible, and be more intentional about the time I spend with my family and friends.
Sometimes I focus on just one or two of these things, but most often I have a combination of all of the above. I start out pretty good, but inevitably at some point I fall off the bandwagon and then get consumed by guilt because I am “failing” at my resolutions. The guilt lasts a few weeks and then I kind of forget about them all together and life goes on as normal.
This year, I'm going to try something different. My promise for this New Year is to try to see myself, and everyone I meet, the way God sees us. This is also going to be something we work on together as a family this year.
You see, I have had a few epiphanies lately. I have struggled with my weight and body image for a long time. In fact, in my mind, this is something that I believed I struggled with all my life. I remember, vividly, being in 6th grade and taking my Presidential Fitness Tests in Gym. I scored well on all the tests and was feeling pretty good about them when my gym teacher casually said to me, “You did good, but you could stand to lose a few pounds.”
I was crushed. I happened to have a sports physical the next day. The baby-faced young soldier (I was an Army brat) who was doing my initial screening and weighing me said, “Man, you are solid.” This, in my mind, translated to “You are fat.” From that moment on, I saw myself as, and believed I was, fat.
My epiphany came when I found an old box of pictures and looked at them in shock and disbelief. I quickly sent a message to an old friend that said, “Hey, I wasn't fat in Jr. High!” She affirmed that statement, and asked me where I had ever come up with such an idea. I had always believed it though, and I wasn't–the pictures were proof.
The pictures, and my friend, reassured me that my memory of being overweight in Jr. High was all in my head. Eventually though, that message that was playing over and over in my head became a real problem I have had to deal with–a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
This made me realize that I need to change how I view myself, and I want to be careful about the way my kids are seeing themselves and other people.
The great news is we have an awesome example for this. We know that we are made in God's image. We know that we are worthy of God's love because of who we are, just as we are right now–without making any sort of changes at all. God calls all of us to love all of God's children and see them as the beloved, precious children that God sees them as.
If we saw every person we encountered through God's eyes, I imagine that would change the way we would respond to them and the way we act. We could solve much of the negativity, the bullying, the self-esteem problems and the sadness that seems pervasive in our communities today.
So, will you commit to seeing everyone the way God sees them in 2015 and beyond?
