So I have been reading Romans and I came across this verse:

1: 19-20 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

This verse really stuck out to me because recently I have been thinking about my summer plans (I know it is a bit early but I'm excited) and have been really wanting to go out and see the world. I just get excited about seeing new places and new faces because there is so much beauty in our world. And not to go all American Beauty on you but sometimes my heart just can't take all of the beauty in this world. Like the passage says, in all the things God has created you can see his eternal power and divine nature. And part of this means us. humans. God created us and his glory is within us. I have always struggled with self image not just physically but spiritually as well. Sometimes I struggle to see the beauty in my life and instead only see it in others. So this verse was a good reminder that I am a beautiful creation of God. I need to remind myself everyday that God created me for his glory and that when I get down on myself and even hate myself that I am essentially hating the "eternal power and divine nature" of God.

I remember that I once taught a lesson on the golden rule "love your neighbor as yourself." What escapes people (especially myself) is that there are two sides to that. First, to love people. And second, to love yourself. For me self loathe is something I really struggle with while loving people I find is a whole lot easier. In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, the main character tries to live a life of "reason, purpose, and self-esteem." I believe that that is how I want to live out my life. The culture we live in is constantly wanting us to hate ourselves so that we want to be like other people, that there is always room for improvement, that we are never good enough, and that we will never be complete. Think about it. Companies have made a fortune off of self-help books, pop-culture psychology, and image. We live in a world where not only 20 million American adults have been estimated to have depression but the fastest growing market for anti-depressants is pre-schooled age children. From the youngest age we are taught to hate ourselves.

I say, enough. It is about time we learn to love ourselves. As Shakespeare wrote in Henry V, "Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting."