A couple of Sundays ago we had a family lunch. When we are all together, it’s a crowd. The food was laid out in the kitchen like a buffet. We put our food on our plates and found a place to sit down. Since it was a cool, rainy day, we couldn’t sit outside. That meant some sat at the kitchen table. Some sat at the kitchen bar. Some sat in the family room. I sat at the dining room table.
When a couple of our youngest granddaughters saw me, they hurried with their plates to sit next to me. Suddenly 6 year old Willow and 5 year old Olive were seated to my right and four year old Ivy and eight year old Violet were seated to my left. Fifteen year old Audrey joined us at the end of the table, opposite me.
I took a selfie with each of the 5 girls and posted the pictures on Facebook. The caption read, “These girls are my lunch dates today.” #blessed
After we had begun eating, into the dining room came 6 year old Ezra with his dad. Ezra had been off somewhere playing and didn’t realize it was time to eat. His dad had helped him with his plate and was now helping him find a place to sit. Since Ivy had opted to push a high chair (without a tray) over to the table, there was one open chair left. Ezra sat there and began eating.
So I had to get a selfie with Ezra. I added the photo to the post and updated the caption. I read it to the group around the table. “These girls and one boy are my lunch dates today.” #blessed
Immediately one of the girls, I think Violet, said, “Two boys!” She was including me in the count around the table. I said, “No. It’s just one boy, Ezra, who joined me”.
Ezra replied, “Yeah, he has to eat with himself.”
I had never thought of that before. Whenever I eat I don’t get to choose if I’m going to eat with me or not. I’m always there. When I eat, sleep, work, read, watch a movie. Whatever I do, I have to include me. If I didn’t like me, then I guess it would cause me to be pretty miserable every day.
After Ezra delivered his clever and cute (he’s always cute) response, I gave it some thought. I suppose some people might struggle because they don’t like their own company.
What’s your opinion of you? Maybe you’ve never felt worthy. Maybe someone you thought loved you called you stupid. Maybe you’ve listened to the wrong voices telling you you’re not good enough. You and I can’t change what someone has said to us or the pain those words generated. However, I can tell you what God thinks of you.
God thinks you’re amazing!
God loves how He designed you!
God cares about you even more than you care about yourself!
God loves you with an everlasting, unconditional love! Jeremiah 31:3
Stop comparing yourself to anyone else. There is no comparison. After God created you, He broke the mold. He determined there will never be another one exactly like you ever again. You and I need to embrace what God has made and love it.
These verses found in Psalm 139 are universal truth for every person.
13
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
Paul referred to self-love when he wrote to the Ephesians about marriage. He gave this instruction to husbands - “husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it.” (Ephesians 5:28-29a).
Did you get that? We are supposed to love ourselves. Most of us actually prove we do by trying to take care of our own physical needs.
Regardless of your age. Regardless of what has happened in your past. Regardless of what someone else has told you. I hope you love yourself. I hope you enjoy the “you” God has made. You’re special. You’re beautiful. You are You.
Today, tomorrow, the next day, if you eat, you won’t have any choice but to eat with yourself. Enjoy the person God created. Enjoy you.
