Clean up your own life so that you can like yourself. When you do that you will find that it is second nature to like others. What do I mean by clean up your own life? I mean forgive yourself of all that you know deep down inside you that is less than what you would have thought or done in hindsight. We all make rash and ill conceived decisions in our life. But the difference with most of us is that we learn from our mistakes and move forward without making the same mistakes over and over again. I would say that generally, we all have been subjected to an enculturation that deposited less than honorable values into our thinking and behavior. So we were not born with these less than honorable thoughts and behaviors, on the contrary, we were trained up in them.
But once we realize that they are wrong thoughts and behaviors it is because we were taught them, not because we are inherently bad people. So our first order of business is recapturing the innocence we were born with and recognize the thought and behavior that infests within us and then purge both from our thinking. Surely we can control our thoughts once they appear in our minds. It is our mastery over ourselves that becomes the struggle. Just because I have a less than honorable thought cross my mind does not mean that I have to leave it there to stew over. I can dismiss it and by doing so eliminate the possibility of it ever becoming an act of behavior.
When we first started out in our innocence everything was a marvel and a mystery. There was no discrimination nor intolerance in our minds. We were taught how to hate and how to discriminate. We don't have to keep those old less than honorable lessons within us. We can choose to instead remember that all of us human beings are unique and of value beyond comprehension. We can choose to admire our differences and take pride in the adaptability of our species. First we must stop hating ourselves and give ourselves the gift of forgiveness. We don't need the idea of a hoped for sovereign to forgive us, we have that power within us already.
But once we realize that they are wrong thoughts and behaviors it is because we were taught them, not because we are inherently bad people. So our first order of business is recapturing the innocence we were born with and recognize the thought and behavior that infests within us and then purge both from our thinking. Surely we can control our thoughts once they appear in our minds. It is our mastery over ourselves that becomes the struggle. Just because I have a less than honorable thought cross my mind does not mean that I have to leave it there to stew over. I can dismiss it and by doing so eliminate the possibility of it ever becoming an act of behavior.
When we first started out in our innocence everything was a marvel and a mystery. There was no discrimination nor intolerance in our minds. We were taught how to hate and how to discriminate. We don't have to keep those old less than honorable lessons within us. We can choose to instead remember that all of us human beings are unique and of value beyond comprehension. We can choose to admire our differences and take pride in the adaptability of our species. First we must stop hating ourselves and give ourselves the gift of forgiveness. We don't need the idea of a hoped for sovereign to forgive us, we have that power within us already.
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