Thursday (7/17/2014)

Update:

I’ve enjoyed the cooler weather for sleeping!  After a good night’s rest, on Wednesday I did my exercises and my bike ride and checked the scale.  I immediately went to weigh-in a day early because of the fantastic results.  I ended up losing 3.8 pounds this week—hopefully I finally made it through the weight loss plateau that I have been on for the last few weeks.  I was hoping for maybe a quarter pound loss, so this was a wonderful conclusion to the Biggest Loser I’ve been participating in.  My total weight loss in nine weeks is 24.4 pounds.  Although the competition is over, I will still be exercising, riding my bike and watching my diet because I have at least 30 more pounds to lose!  This has gotten me into good habits and given me the motivation I needed to begin.  Right now I’ve got momentum going so I plan on just continuing on doing what has worked well for me so far.  One of the reasons for me working so hard to get down to my goal weight is the fit of my prosthesis.  Slight variations in my residual leg means big headaches for keeping my prosthesis fitting correctly.  Without a correct fit, I really cannot walk—so I have huge motivation to drop the weight and then keep it stable.

Most of the rest of my day was spent visiting a friend in the hospital. She had her hip replaced and is doing well.  I also made a number of phone calls to folks that I needed to touch base with.  After an early dinner I went to the church to prepare for a meeting I had that evening.

After the meeting it was time to begin my bedtime routine.  I had picked up my prescription antiperspirant for my residual leg earlier in the day. It gets applied at night, my leg wrapped, and then washed off in the morning.  I do that for three nights in a row and then supposedly I only have to do it once a week after that.  Sounds kind of weird.  We’ll see how it goes and how well it works.

Thought for the Day: 

“What measurements do you use to define your self-worth? Do you define it based on your financial assets? Is it based on what you have achieved professionally? Perhaps you define your value based on the number of children you have.  There are many things we can use to define our self-worth. However, the scriptures tell us there is only one measure for our self-worth. Each of us has self-worth because we are made in the image of God. And because we are made in the image of God, we are valuable. Whenever you and I place a value in ourselves that is based on some other performance criteria, we have moved beyond God's view of our worth as human beings. You are never more valuable to God than you were the day you were born.”    [Os Hillman, Today God is First (TGIF), on-line devotional message, 7//17/2014].

If you think that your self-worth is based upon your abilities, what happens when through aging or disability you are no longer able to do those things?  Are you less of a person?  Many people based their value upon the job that they do and then are devastated when they lose their job or retire.  Now who are they? 

It is easy to base your concept of self on your financial resources.  If your evaluation of self-worth is “I am somebody if I have the money to buy a nice house, fine car, and purchase whatever I want” then you are in trouble when your resources are diminished or gone.  Have you noticed that advertising is designed to make you dissatisfied with what you already have?  Its message is “life is not worth living unless you have what we offer.”  There is an endless amount of “toys” that could be purchased and never enough cash to purchase them all.  It is a system designed to make us feel less than satisfied with ourselves.  This changes the message in our mind to “I am somebody if I have the RIGHT things” and we are nobody if we don’t.

We often tie our concept of self-worth to the idea of how happy we are.  As long as we are happy, then “I’m okay.”  But when we are unhappy, we quickly turn to despair and decide that “life is no longer worth living.”  Does our value as a person really fluctuate along the lines of our feelings?

Here’s where things really go south!  Not only do many people place the value of their lives based upon false standards like these; they also evaluate others based upon those same faulty standards.  The result is that they devalue the lives of those around them.  “You aren’t worth anything because you’ve got nothing!”  Or just as defective, we value people for how well they perform.  The result is that we elevate actors or athletes well beyond the true level of worth in our society.  Does it really make sense the amount of money some people receive to play a game or to portray a character while say educators struggle to make a living wage?  Our value system is really wacked!

Here is another problem with our flawed view of self-worth, you and I tend to judge everyone else around us by the same warped standards that we hold true.   We often devalue people based upon a prejudiced viewpoint.  Prejudice means that we are “pre-judging” a person before we even get to know them.  For instance, a law-abiding citizen looks down upon a criminal as the scum-of-the-earth. We may not know them personally or even know what their crime was; but because they have a record we automatically look at them as less than desirable.  We devalue them in our mind.  The result is that we tend to treat people we view as less desirable with less kindness and more harshly.  Now we’ve hit a slippery slope!

Instead, we need to remember that our value (and everyone else’s) has already been determined by God.  We are created in His image; that is with the hint of His attributes; so therefore we are valuable as individuals.  Our value is not based upon performance or position or power.  Our value is rooted in who we are—human beings and the fact that God loves us for who we are.  That’s why everyone we come in contact with (including ourselves) is worthy of respect and being treated with dignity.  They may not have our good looks, social graces, or financial resources; but that doesn’t matter. 

If everyone came to believe this and live it out in their lives, our world would be a much better place.  Now we may not be able to change everyone’s mind; but we can change our own.  What does the way you look at people and treat people say about your basis of evaluation?  Look deep within your heart and then look up to God and compare your way and His.  Do they line up with one another?  They should!

Mark 12:28-31    “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'  The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (This is also echoed in Matthew 22:36-40).

Treat others as you yourself desire to be treated.  Give them the same level of respect and dignity that you deserve.  Don’t devalue yourself, or others, based upon a false value system.  God love you so you are somebody special!  Believe it!  Live it out!