Healthy Living

---

It was late in the Spring of 1964 when Ford Motor Co. introduced a mid-season entry in the car market that captured the American fantasy like nothing before its time. The Mustang was an immediate favorite with all classes of car buyers, and became visible nearly everywhere you looked. By four years later, it was said that Mustangs were like belly buttons-everybody had one!

The human concept of self-esteem is exactly like that. Everybody has one. Some people’s esteem is high, some is low, but every human being has an opinion of himself or herself, and it shows in everything they do. Choices on every level reflect how a person sees their self in the world. Sometimes clothing or other visible choices reflect how they want to feel about themselves. That’s the “fake it till ya make it” idea. Sometimes the self-image needs burnishing, and a new dress or hair style will do it for a woman, or a fancy car will do it for a man.

Self-esteem most visibly makes its mark in friends. People have in their lives the people they either want or feel they deserve. Every friend you have either shows how you feel about yourself, or want to.
They way they treat you shows how you see yourself, because you have in your soul a person who deserves or wants to be either loved or hated. It makes us take on people who fascinate us, and mistreat us. Takes a lot of digging to find out what’s driving our desires and choices. But it’s a worthwhile effort, this venture, because it can show us our unhealthy choices, the ones that eminently lead to our destruction. A skilled person can show us how to face them, realize what’s driving them, and stop making them.

We’re not always so pretty inside, but God’s grace can clean that up.
He begins by taking away the sin load, the feeling that we should trash ourselves, because of previous choices and actions. Once that burden is off of us, we can then start loving ourselves, and making decisions that reflect that love.

A work of grace is a life of ever healthier choices, leading to ever better self esteem. It makes for a sound mind, as well.

Tell me what you think, I’m just thinkin out loud.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE