From Cope to Hope | Part 5, ”Mirror Mirror, What Do I See?”

Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Psalm 139:13-14, For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. Matt. 6:26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matt 12:11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. How you see yourself determines, in large part, how you live and treat others. Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." We can't live or love in a significant way beyond our ability to recognize life and love within ourselves. The concepts of self-image and self-esteem is something that Bible writers did not consider in the same way that we consider it today. The Bible does address self-value, personal responsibility, and understanding how and why God made us. Self-Image is how you see yourself. Self-esteem is your sense of value. When we face challenges, it is our inner image that reacts or responds. Reactions come from that untrained or ill-trained part of us. Response comes from training and a positive self-image.