In my opinion, God wants a relationship with us where both HE and YOU can grow. Even if you and God fight, he’d rather be real and authentic than have a fake relationship with you.
God Likes Himself
God likes himself.
He likes you, just the way you are.
He likes having coffee with you in the morning.
He likes walking your dog with you.
He likes your day-in, day-out, lazy or productive, skinny or fat, rich or poor, for better or worse— self.
Because he’s just like you.
God Wants You To Like Yourself
God doesn’t want you to have a king, he wants you to have yourself. He wants you to like your life— because he likes your life. God isn’t really into— idolatry— as we can see from the Old Testament. The definition of idolatry is not liking yourself.
It’s not that God doesn’t want to help you change your life— God wants to help you change your life! It’s just that God wants to make sure that in the process— you still like yourself.
God likes you when you have an STD. God likes you when you don’t have an STD.
God just doesn’t want to participate in your self-loathing. When you worship an idol— meaning, when you practice liking someone or something— just to avoid liking yourself, God’s just not that into it.
He won’t want to do it with you. But he will still do it with you.
Because he doesn’t want you to have an experience without him— so he sacrifices his own happiness just to keep you company in your own misery. God’s miserable a lot. That’s why he’s so moody in the Old Testament, because his friends, which are the Israelites, keep sucking him into their self-loathing drama. He lets them most of the time, because you know what? Sometimes friends just have to go the distance.
A Real Relationship
Think of the people you’ve fought with the MOST throughout your life. Probably your kids, right? Or your family.
Think of the people you love the MOST in this world. Probably your kids, right? Or your family.
That’s the same with God. It’s not all peaches and roses in a real relationship. It’s growth.
If you want it to be peaches and roses, then be willing… to like yourself, and to like your life.
And for the times that you don’t, God will be miserable right there with you, honey. He might be not totally happy, but it’s better than being without you.
Please write this in your journal:
In a real relationship, we both grow.
If I want it to be peaches and roses, I have to be willing to like myself.
