32 | Self-Compassion: Seeing Yourself Through The Eyes of God

We often unconsciously resist receiving God’s love and the graces that flow with it. 

We get discouraged, we ruminate, and we isolate ourselves. We criticize ourselves. We criticize other people. We get stuck in these judgment loops and all of that keeps us both from hearing God’s voice and from seeing ourselves the way that God sees us.

What if we saw ourselves through the eyes of God’s compassion for us? Could we start allowing God to really help us to have that kind of a vision – instead of looking through some other lens? 

Jesus had great compassion. He felt the stirrings of compassion deeply and stepped forward into action to heal, to forgive, and to restore. He sees the great value of each person. Their dignity. Their freedom.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Matthew 9:36

God sees us with great compassion and wants good things for us. 

Taking on the inner critic with self-compassion

We each have an inner critic that tells us a version of “you are a loser”, “you are not worthy of love” “you have to be _____ before God or anyone will love you.” It’s the voice that jumps on us as soon as we make a mistake, do something that embarrasses us, or fall short of success. Sometimes it’s the paralysis that shows up when we are trying something new or extending ourselves and we just can’t risk trying. Psychologists tell us the inner critic is essentially universal. 

It’s a voice that can control how we experience our lives. That dictates our emotions in difficult moments. That conditions what we will choose. 

We could have a different experience of life. A life with a voice that speaks compassionately to us, as Jesus would speak to us. Even if we need to be told difficult things or confronted with our shortcomings, we can hear a compassionate voice. The voice of encouragement and inspiration that drives out fear. 

A self-compassionate voice. 

Join our Self-Compassion Group starting October 2022

Women: https://midlife.thmlcoaching.com/self-compassion-seeing-yourself-through-the-eyes-of-god

Men: https://midlife.thmlcoaching.com/self-compassion-toolsformen

“Self love is the basic form of love on which all others are founded and makes all others possible…. We are always engaged in somewhat repressing this truth, which strikes us as somehow unseemly”

Josef Pieper