Pastor

You are special because you are loved. You say, well how am I loved? What kind of love is it? You know there’s four beautiful aspects of God’s love.

God made you unique, different. What is unique means different from all others. No equal or like to it in the world. And that’s who you are. Now, now did you ever realize that? Out of six billion people alive there is no one else like you. That makes you
special.

You know a healthy self-image is seeing yourself as God sees you. And one way God sees you is that you are of great value. He created within you as a being of great value. Now you say, well I don’t think I am. All right, walk through this with me.

The Bible says you are special. How are you special? Well, one of the first things God says about you is that you are special because, now think of this, He gave you something he never gave another part of his creation.

You were created of great value. You don’t believe it? Then let’s see what God’s word says about you.

The question is, in the Word of God, in divine instruments of the manual of our Creator of who we are, what does God say is true about you and about me?

Now the question is what is a healthy self-image? What is a healthy way to perceive yourself? I believe it’s this: to see yourself as God sees you; no more and no less.

How do we perceive ourselves? What, what type of image do we have of who we really are on the inside? So often it is distorted by the culture around us.

Who are you? Have you ever stopped to think about that? Who are you right in the depth of your being?

Josh McDowell gives us an introduction to having a healthy self-image.

You know one of the best things is to help our children to be able to express appreciation — to be able to have a confidence in saying to someone why you like them or that you love them and why they’re special to you.

Here is what I think is a creative idea that can help you to interact with your kids and to understand them even more. That’s what I always try to do to find a game, something we can do, questions I could ask that will help me to understand my child even
better.

You know, the more we can do with our children, the more we can interact with them, the better the family will be—and the happier our children will be, and the happier any parent would be.

What can we do to impact our children? You know what my kids tell me now? “Daddy, family routine — having a routine in the family that we follow.” For example, my children always knew that when I was home I went to bed with them.

Rev Mark Kimpland speaks about our connection with God. You can see more at www.fultonfumc.org

I’d ask, “Who is the one person you would like to invite to dinner tonight? If only one person in all of history you could invite for dinner, who would it be?” And you would be amazed at what your kids would say.

I have found that in a relationship with my children asking questions is one of the best ways to get them to talk, to learn things about them. I find out what I think is true of my child is often not what’s really true of my child what I learn through
asking questions.

With our children, to pass values on them, we need to be honest about our own past. And you know what I found? The more I could share, not just positive but even negative things out of my past with my children, the greater impact it has in their life.
And they can see that their father, their mother is real.

What would you like to do that we have never done before? Is there anything you’d like to do with Dad or Mom that you’ve never done before?

The more our children look to us for answers, usually the better the relationship is, and the greater the family harmony is, and the joy and the happiness in the family. So I always taught my children there’s absolutely nothing off limits. No question,
anything, you can ask me any question you want on any subject, and I will answer it as honestly and as fairly as I can. Whoa! Trust me, you do that, you gonna get some interesting questions, especially from teenagers.