Perceptions! How do you perceive yourself vs. How others perceive you.

I perceive myself as being of normal height. Most people perceive me as being tall.

I'm so offended....

I percieve myself as a middle age woman, I was told last weekend I had to be 22.... so I guess I'm still percieved as a youngster. Lol I'll take it.

I once went along to this seminar or some kind of ladies meeting and it was called seeing yourself as God sees you or something like that.

Now we all prayed and sought God on the matter because many women often get told they are this and that and thats not all God sees.

One image I got was that God saw me as a chick he was hiding under His wing. It gave me the warm fuzzies.

Another thing I got was that all the bad stuff, the sin and shame and yucky stuff, that was all covered in Jesus blood, which wipes away all sin.

Now I dont know if men have this same issues that women seem to have about themselves but we all get judged on our appearances for good or ill. And beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder. But really we are to look to God and to reflect His glory, we actually dont have any of our own. Cos we are made in His image, we dont make ourselves. We can say we made ouselves thats like the clay saying to the potter you cant mould me.

It's pretty clear how we see ourselves is rarely how we perceive ourselves.

I've been considered plenty of negative things, cold, mean, arrogant, condescending, uncaring, etc etc
I'm actually quite the opposite of all those things. My natural way of going about things, even with a positive motivation, is often mistaken for the above traits.

While the many negative ways I view myself my friends all disagree with and regularly try to disprove.

From my trip to Guatemala earlier this year:

Me: Crap the audio recording isn't loud enough, well I've got that picture bible in my backpack and I promised these kids a story, guess I can stumble my way through one is spanish..... (during story) uhg my verb tenses are all over the place and I can barely follow my own story in the pictures, oh wait I forgot about that part .. how do I say demon in spanish, evil spirit will have to do, and I don't know legion in spanish... let's go with muchos for many that will have to be good enough...

Friend watching me doing the above: Where'd she get a spanish picture Bible? Wait a minute that's all written in english. How on earth is she doing that?

True story. It's tough being a bit of a perfectionist and trying to speak in a foreign language. And I tend to be very prone to see the lack in my ability instead of that I have a great ability in the first place.

You are more than oridnary, that's for sure.

Anyone that knows me in person thinks that I am good and do everything right. ----> This is not only A LOT of pressure, but it's so unrealistic. It really makes me be very careful in what I share about those I know, my perception of them.

I think our perception is going to be different than others because they don't know us completely. It's impossible. We also tend to be more harsh about our shortcoming/failures.

I know it's not always true, but I find that others often see us closer to how Jesus would see, in a positive manner, with love.

I was asked to take this test:

Name 3 animals that you like. So I chose:

1. Dolphin
2. Lion
3. Eagle

I was told of the result only after answering. The first is how you see yourself. The second is how others see you and the third is the real you. I don't know how accurate is that but I agree to a certain degree.

Sounds like a "test" you would see on facebook. Or in some cheaper magazines.

"I took this test in a magazine and it said we're incompatible so I'm gonna have to break up with you."

That's why I agree only to a certain degree. It was because " the real me is an eagle" It is probably true because Christians are compared to eagles.

This was very encouraging to me...

It really is, I thought that was awesome too.
Perspective can change everything. I had a major paradigm shift when getting ready to speak on the prodigal "sons" this last week and it was so crazy I want to share. First off the parable is found in Luke 15, and the chapter starts with

"Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So from the very beginning starts with how the Pharisees were looking at the other people, the "sinners" Jesus was receiving as if they were below even speaking to in their eyes. Then Jesus goes on right into the "leave the 99 for 1", then "the woman that loses the 1 silver coin". This kind of showing the equal worth of every one, and the joy you get when one is lost and you find it.

This sets the stage for the "oh so famous", parable of the prodigal son(s). One of the first things I learned was that the prodigal "sons", was a closer name that "son" singular. Then I looked up exactly what "prodigal" meant. I thought it meant boomerang or something like that. "The boomerang son", LOL, just playing kind of, but thought it meant something like "returning", or "coming back". Nope, it means "wasteful", the wasteful son. Also through looking a bit deeper into the culture in the time they were in the story would have acted out in real life like this: The younger son walks up and says, "hey still living and healthy father, I want my inheritance right now". To which the father would reply "!SMACK!", upside the head, followed by a beating he would never ever forget while all publicly to shame him as deserved.

I heard this parable so many times, and always seem to relate it to, and make it all about this younger brother that falls so low, yet returns to a good and merciful father that is just overjoyed his son has turned from his folly and come back home to life. The condition of the younger son depravity and dishonor was so over the top as to be almost unrelatable really. Jesus was just painting a picture of the worst things of the flesh the Pharisees could have even imagined. A youngers son asking for his inheritance before the father is dead is shameful, but the father indulging his requests is just as baffling, then the son "cashing out" a third of his fathers estate to go whore it up in gentile land and wasting it to the point he finds himself in a filthy pigsty desiring to eat what the pigs were eating. If this son was to return home in this time a stoning would have been the answer, but in this the father runs to embrace the son, full reconciliation with no restitution demanded, absolutely undeserved, but the son did realize his was lead to desiring pig slop and that his was throwing himself on the fathers mercy and kindness.

Now we get to the other son who was exactly where he was supposed to be, doing exactly what he was supposed to do, and hears the commotion and ask, "what is that noise", and is told it's the younger son returned to Him and He is rejoicing and he refuses to go into the father's house. Once the father hears he also goes to the older son and ask "why don't you come in?". I think when most of us are honest we kind of understand where the older might be coming from, he says: "I have always done what you asked and have been faithful and honored you, but this son of yours comes to you takes your stuff and sells it, waste it all on wicked desires then comes back to full forgiveness and a party, that's not fair.

The father then tells the older, "son you have ALWAYS been with me and all I have is yours, but your brother was dead but now alive, was lost but now is found. Then it ends right there never even saying if the older brother went in. When I read the whole chapter together thinking about the big point here, and keeping in mind who he is talking to and exactly how the chapter starts, this parable wasn't aimed at the sinners, it was aimed at the Pharisee's. The main subject in this parable is actually the older brother and it was aimed at the Pharisee's, and what's even more is it never says if they went in or not. The father was there and wanted them, he shows this by going out to meet both of them, the youngs sons fleshly desires lead him from the father's house until the time he turned from his futile ways and submitted to his father fully, the older was kept from the fathers house by his own judgement and condemnation of his sinful brother. Hes wasn't going to celebrate this "son of his fathers", this was a disgusting shameful pig and deserved nothing. It was his judgement that Jesus was addressing with these parable's, and what's even more than that it never says whether or not they turn back the good father or not. This was the first time I ever heard this perspective and it blows my mind how multi-dimensional Gods word to us is.