SELF I

 
              FRIENDS,

    THIS IS THE FIRST OF

A THREE  PART SERIES ON

               SELF.

               *****

    



Hi There !

So, fair warning.

This is going to be

a bit personal.

Well, OK, a good bit more than

"a bit" personal.

Here we go.

When you strip down to your basic self

in front of a full person mirror,

do you like what you see?

     Do you like your body?

     Do you like your mind?

     Do you like your

         temperament and personality?

     Do you like your spirit,

         the spark that makes you go?

     Do you like yourself

         inside, outside, through and through,

         top to bottom and all around?

When you look into

a full person mirror,

do you fear it will shatter

at the ugliness there, or

do you rejoice at the beauty

and love-ability it reflects,

or do you......????

In sheer, naked honesty,

how do you respond?

It's critical.

And words don't do it.



Our real response is spoken

by our spiritual life.

Our spiritual life is before all else

a love relationship with our self.

When I'm comfortable

in my own skin and soul,

I'm free, free to be fully me

in loving the socks off God and neighbor.

To the degree that I regret being me

I am ducking and weaving,

coping and compensating so much

that it limits me in loving those socks

off God and neighbor.

It's just that actual.

Jesus said it simple:

   Love God, neighbor, self.

             Luke 19:27

Our spiritual life,

more fully, our whole life, is a

             Love Life




This love life starts with self love.

That's not a bit selfish.

It's primary and necessary because

who else but a free self is going to be

loving those socks off

God and neighbor?




Decades upon decades of people care

have meant all sorts of

delights and shocks for me.

On the shock side,

nothing has shocked me more

than how many of us down deep

just plain don't like being

who and how they are.

      I'm too:

                - fat/skinny

                - tall/short

                - dumb/smart

                 - dark/light

                 - sensitive/blunt

                 - shy/forward

                 - athletic/artistic

                 -sociable/private

That self dis-ease is

 a major league game changer.

It's like trying to win

the Olympic Fifty Yard Dash

running in a potato sack.

Self Limit.

We need to see self differently.

So, it's back to

the full person mirror

for another look.

Yes, all of us inherited

and have caused limiting mess.

               See it.

And keeping looking deeper.

Mess is like being covered

with dirt after a mud fight.

            Not nice.

      Not neat and tidy.

Not constitutive of who we are either.

Merely a covering over

who we really are.

It's essential to see that

and then get that mess cleaned up.

So, if we have fouled ourselves,

other or been fouled

by any form of abuse,

see it, get help cleaning it up

so we can be free

to see the beautiful, lovable self

underneath hurt and dirt.



Something else we need to see is

the film of fraud

that merchants and media minions

use to blind us to our

unique beauty and love-ability,

and that causes so many

so much self doubt and discomfort.

To make money

the media/merchant crowd

make us feel uncomfortable

because we don't have

the preferred body type

they hype in their advertising.

They set standards

of taste and preferment

that in truth are

stumbling blocks to self love -

you are approved and acceptable

if you ware this, drive that,

eat here, have, own, get -

get what they hawk so

they can get our money

by selling us a bill of

not at all goods.

Their propaganda is

so pervasive and constant

many just don't see it

and consequently

don't see themselves as

uniquely beautiful and

ever so lovable.

It's really a sin!!




By happy contrast,

what a grace to be the self

uniquely created by God

out of sheer love.

          "God is love"

                 and

  "So God created humanity

    in his image,in the image

    of God he created them..."


 ( I John 4:8 and Genesis 1:27)


So great and grand !

We just can't let

difficulty or difficult people

talk us out of ourselves

and bind us in self denying constriction.



Next week we'll take a good close look

at the unique and lovable self we all are,

and also at the anti- self

that denies us out of ourselves,

In the meantime,

give yourself a great big hug.

Join God's delight in you.



Happy to be with you and

thanks for letting me be with you.

Holding all you unique,

      lovable selves

  In God's Dear Love,

       John Frank

          *****


For the folks new to us here,

glad for your good company.

          Welcome !


To get a sense of just what

we are about here,

please take a little

time and prayer with

      WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

                          and

     CONSIDER YOUR SOURCE

      right column, online posting.


                 
          "frankly speaking"

       spirituality for the street

-is posted every Friday online at

      johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

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- past postings available at Blog Archive

  bottom right column

  online posting

          THANK YOU !

       *****