I attended a funeral this week.  My aunt.  She was the last sibling to pass on, from my father’s side.  There were 10 of them.  After the grave side service I walked over to my father’s grave.  I cleaned it off and told him I missed him, even though he was a handful to deal with in the last years of his life.

My father was 82 when he passed away.  As I was looking at his tombstone, I saw his favorite photo attached to it.  (See photo)  I laughed as I recalled teasing him, before he passed, about ripping it off of there, with a crowbar.  He’s the one who glued it on there in the first place.  It dawned on me, toward the end of his life, this is how he saw himself, still 21 and a, “Lady’s Man”.  At 70, divorced, he even had wallet size copies made up with his phone number written on the back of them.  He would hand them out to women he met at the dance halls.  I would say to my father, “That’s false advertising!”  He didn’t see the humor in it.

This brings me to a point:  Is how you see yourself, the same as others see you?  Do you think more highly of yourself than you should?  Do you consider yourself to be a better person than others would say you are?  Or, would others say more good things about you than you would say about yourself?  What about when you are at home?  Are you the same person others see in public?  At church?  Ouch!  I’ll admit, at times my wife sees my temper when it takes a lot for it to show up in public.  Reminds me of the book, “Who You Are (When No One is Looking)”.  The title alone was convicting.

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,…” Romains 12:3a (NKJV)

Having an accurate, positive, balanced, and God focused image of yourself is very healthy.  I think it helps you relax, as well as those around you.  Anything more could be considered, “false advertising”.

Copyright © 2020 Mark Brady.  All rights reserved.