ethoughts

Oct 1, 2007

Thoughts on self-concept and fortune cookie sayings (not in that order)

Greetings readers!

Life is settling down. Breathing is returning to predictable rhythm. My thoughts however are coming to me in the form of fortune cookies.

Here are some:

May your words of wisdom always be considered pearls rather than rabbit raisins. Okay, that wasn’t really one of them– that was just me warming up.

- Going with your gut is not for the gutless. It's balance of chance and formula of sorts.

It’s Risk + Advantage + Information = Positive Outcome

- A spreadsheet is no substitute for inspiration.

- Splitting hairs won’t get you a full fluffy mane. It’ll get you mangy all over.

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- Solitude clears the mind, but too much time alone can poison it.

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- It seems if “Vision” could be kept in a barrel, statistics would be at the bottom.

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- Never consider your pushing opinion more important than promoting dialogue, what do you think?

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Beyond these odd bursts of sound bites coming from my gray matter late last night, I'd like to pass on what my professor was talking about this past week:

Most studies show that three qualities interconnect and congeal to form a healthy view self. They are BELONGING, COMPETENCY, and WORTH. All of these take a hit in junior high, no? We each struggle with these components fro time to time. We largely judge them outside ourselves, and make up our minds about our selves based on our findings. Some of us are damaged and cannot accurately surmise who we are in light of how God sees us, and loves us. We may know the facts, but it doesn't penetrate the heart. Our growth becomes stunted, or postponed. We can't shake the nagging feeling that we aren't good enough, or we are quite focused on our strengths and ourselves. The continuum of self-concept goes from inaccurate "self hate" to the proper view "self-respect" (self-love), to the erroneous "self-adoration". On the two extremes we are of inconsistent, little, or no use to others and trapped in ourselves.

The good news is all three of these issues, belonging, competency, and worth are satisfied with God in three persons. God the Father adopts us and we belong. Jesus, the Son, gives us worth. He gave us own life as ransom for us. And the Holy Spirit, the presence of God within believers, gives us competency in the truth of God and in sanctification. You can find the total package discussed in Romans chapter 8. This is how we move toward a healthy view of self, which helps us live a fuller and richer life. It helps us live properly in community and live how we were menat to live. Otherwise we’ll never feel good enough. Otherwise we’ll take it out on others. Otherwise we’ll be beset with jealousy, sadness, doubt, envy, one-upsmanship, and lots of other troubling foibles.

That's it for now. Oh, heck,

How about one more fortune cookie thought . . .

- I don’t think people of faith have to be good leapers. They just have to be faithful.

-Lisa

lisadelay.com

Lisa DeLay

©2007