How do you view yourself?

Just a son and everything that entails.

MehGuy said:

How do you perceive yourself? For instance do you think you are a bad person? A good person? Something more complicated? Any moral problems you feel that you need to work on?

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Inclined to evil, but made in right-standing through Jesus. I'll leave all that exhausting morality stuff with the atheists.

A sinner, limping along with a ragtag band of other sinners towards the Kingdom.

A good person with currently no vices but as we know the tempter could come at any time so it's important not to be over confident.

Hidden in God...
Loved by Him.

Daughter of the Holy Spirit and a good person!

MehGuy said:

How do you perceive yourself? For instance do you think you are a bad person? A good person? Something more complicated? Any moral problems you feel that you need to work on?

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I like to think of myself as a lite version of St. Paul-------------like very lite. Like, feather-weight, maybe. Not even half the holiness, nor half the compassion and love, nor half the long-suffering Paul had, but walking on the spiritual road toward Jesus, and not even being half of the way there yet.

(~ ala Philippians 3:12-16 ) ... I mean, I is what I is! But thank the Lord that He apparently has other ideas about me, or at least that is what I gather from my own understanding of the Holy Scriptures!

The only thing I'm good at is keeping the evil in my heart from coming out. Even then, it's God's doing and not my own.

When I saw the title, my first thought was, "With a mirror, duh!" But then I actually read the post.

While it is beneficial to acknowledge our shortcomings, I don't at all find it beneficial to self-flagellate. Part of the greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves, and I sometimes wonder if a reason why so many Christians are cold or even hostile towards our neighbors is because they don't have any love for themselves, and I don't believe we can truly love others unless we also have love for ourselves.

God proclaimed all of his creation to be good and even very good, and I don't believe that's changed. Sin corrupts but cannot and does not have the power to erase the goodness of God's handiwork.

I don't always feel the above on my worst days, but other days it is much easier to view myself in a much more kind and compassionate way. It is very easy to see our imperfections, our sin, the ways we believe we miss the mark, but it can be a real struggle to see just how greatly we are blessed and how deeply we are loved.

MehGuy said:

How do you perceive yourself? For instance do you think you are a bad person? A good person? Something more complicated? Any moral problems you feel that you need to work on?

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I will go with something more complicated...

I am an Postmodern Orthodox Existential Stoic Mystical Christian.

I like to think of myself as unofficial minister, or a "Content Creator" for Yahew, the Trinity, Jesus etc.





and to get my take my take on "postmodern" you would have to read the link below (rather than all the negative stuff out on the web).
https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~goguen/courses/230/pm-perl.html




Besides all that I kind of have embraced a kind of a Christian version of the Joseph Campbell, "Heroes Journey". I believe that is kind of why we are here on Earth etc. Our problems, our flaws, our hurts etc. tend to often be a source of what we can give later to help benefit other people around us.

I'm with @bekkilyn

I have no room for flagellation or self-abasement. I'm a masterpiece in the making. I view myself positively. Society has enough steel toes in waiting without me helping them out and beating myself up. Not gonna happen.

~Bella

MehGuy said:

I can understand how some may feel this way, especially growing up in Christian circles. For me personally and even when I was a Christian my view of myself positively or negatively had nothing to really do with how moral I thought I was.

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I never saw myself in the negative. There were moments when I moved closer to purpose than others. But every step was meaningful. I wouldn't be the woman I am without them.

The secular equivalent is probably the politically correct culture. I do not see myself ever really caring what they think. I'll even be "abhorrent" in their eyes just to get them to back off and hopefully back off from others.

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I have no concern for them or the religious types. I freed myself from both. As long as God is satisfied that's all that matters. Limited thinking has no place in my world.

~Bella

I see myself as an above average mutt that can type and above all believes in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

MehGuy said:

How do you perceive yourself? For instance do you think you are a bad person? A good person? Something more complicated? Any moral problems you feel that you need to work on?

Click to expand...

I see myself as a painting in progress. Artist take a canvas and spend time waiting to receive revelation about what to paint. Some paintings can take hours, others days or even years. Artists also paint on a canvas over and over until they achieve what they want to achieve. The goal is for Jesus in us.

MehGuy said:

How do you perceive yourself? For instance do you think you are a bad person? A good person? Something more complicated? Any moral problems you feel that you need to work on?

Click to expand...

Something more complicated. I experience extremes. My moral problem is existing as a creature and justifying or condemning it, and of who I am in relation to God.

I might not be able to derive enough meaning to justify myself to continue to exist as a slave that requires things that I don't want to partake of such as the need for food and shelter, of The Emptiness of being a creature. But there is so much meaning in all the selves of this unique world. Nature is both beautiful and ugly. it would be better to only have the Beautiful but what if I myself turn out to be ugly? I feel that no matter what I choose that I will make a mistake, but being enslaved to things that I don't want to do and be is not acceptable to my pride or nobility. I made myself stuck. But it is unacceptable to my pride and nobility to continue to pass my burden on to someone else. So people are sad if I relieve myself of this burden by ending my creaturehood and I am sad if I must continue. So I need more courage but I don't have a clear idea of what to do with this courage.

there's not even a point for me to live if I can be good at having an easy life of obtaining food and shelter without feeling like a slave... to forsake Society and to have the basics of what I need. I feel then a vast void of all the goods in Society by wishing to escape from the burdens.

I have intense anxiety and cannot seem to change feeling horrible over being around so many strangers at a job. It feels deadening to do what so many do, to be forced to do a job that you hate. I cannot think of a way of life that is good enough to be happy over even though my mood and feelings can be rather positive at times. Working with others is one of the main themes of humanity and I am alienated from it. I cannot find a close-knit tribe that could survive together doing things that they don't hate but love. Being a creature here has no final solution and answer, that's why we all die and move on to other realities. I don't know how to improve this world, I can't justify my existence here other than not making a negative impact on others and enjoying the nice things the world offers such as people and their creations. But feeling miserable until I'm 80 and die of old age or some health problem sounds like a worse fate than death. I already feel that I lived a full life.

Pavel Mosko said:

Postmodern Orthodox Existential Stoic Mystical Christian.

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That self-description rocks! Now, I want to be one.