Deflated

How do you teach people to love themselves?  That is the question that has been floating around and around in my head.  It seems that with any other learning, all you have to do is study it.  But with self-image, often the more it's studied, the more fault and weakness is found.

A couple nights ago my husband and I excitedly watched the third part of the Hunger Games trilogy.  The movie (Part 1) was invigorating and set us both into the Hunger Games-frenzy again.  So much so for me that I grabbed the book, Catching Fire, off my shelf and picked up where the movie left off (reading the remaining 212 pages in a matter of hours).  If you are familiar with the books you should know the ending has left many readers disappointed and grasping at straws at the end of the plot.  Why?  Because a strong and powerful character leads battle after battle throughout the entire storyline and slowly disintegrates before the readers eyes.  By the end of the story she is nothing but a shell of the person she once was, fighting the horrendous memories that haunt her.  Why am I telling you all of this?  Because it bothers me that an appropriate answer to pain and hardship is to disappear and lose the person you were designed to be.  Do I understand the pain that this character endured?  No.  In fact, not even close.  But to me, each challenge should be overcome, not passed by, surrendering pieces of yourself, until you are depleted like a balloon slowly losing its substance.

Am I taking this series a little too literally?  Probably.  But I think it highlights a piece of reality that is worth mentioning.  Instead of overcoming situational experiences in our life, we see difficulties as a reason to become less of ourselves; worse yet, we adapt to carrying a greater burden and never learn to drop it and move on.  Everyone on the planet has baggage that they are carrying around.  Sadly, most people's most defining feature is their baggage.  Why?  Because they don't know themselves well enough to think any different.  Their self is a sum of all of their circumstances instead of their circumstances being defined by their self.  You are more than what has happened to you.  You are what you think you are.  It's time to start thinking you are great.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." -Matthew 11:28