How does 'loving God' help self esteem?

[running]

And im not trying to sound like i know. Just my 2 cents

Originally Posted by Honza

Is there a place for loving God if you are trying to increase your self esteem? Does loving God help self esteem in any way? I would say it does; slowly but surely. God is the macrocosm, while self esteem is the microcosm. The two should go hand in hand, no?

There's a funny biochemical thing that goes on when we "agree" to "love a god"... in a placebo-like-way we give ourselves permission to "relax". We inwardly give ourselves permission to embrace something within ourselves that feels deeply more godly and less physically intense.

There are three things that effect our bodies, and that in turn, effect the way we physically feel about ourselves.
1. Stress
2. Nutrition (how does the food that we eat align with what our bodies were designed to ingest)
3. Exposure to Toxicity

This being the case, then embracing a "loving god" helps in settling the Stress component. We tend to relax a bit thinking that something bigger than ourselves is intently watching over things. We can still be derailed by our nutritional and toxicity exposures (note the number of chubby, sick and mentally unstable religious people) but reducing stress in this way can be helpful.

Is there indeed a "loving god" that we can reach-for and hold onto? Well of course... but such has little to do with what we "think" god to be... in essence, we inwardly each are that energy-of-god in which we intuitively long-for.... :^)

[jenriggs]

Because you are god, you, all of us are part of gods source, which means you love yourself.

Loving God does not affect self esteem.

When you know yourself, the good and the bad, and the picture satisfies your norms and values, then that builds your self esteem.

Now, if your highest norm is loving God and you love God, then that builds your self esteem.

All this provided you're not affected by society's norms and values which may be hypocritical and which may judge by appearances.

I'd like to love God but am not sure I believe in him. Also if I did believe in him maybe I wouldn't love him but be mad at him. LOL. But believing in God seems to help a lot of people. How do you find faith?

Originally Posted by Trickster

I'd like to love God but am not sure I believe in him. Also if I did believe in him maybe I wouldn't love him but be mad at him. LOL. But believing in God seems to help a lot of people. How do you find faith?

Most people think of God as a personal God, an entity who controls everything that happens on earth. It is the reason why people lose faith, get angry at God for what they see as injustices, pain and everything that is wrong (a judgement) with the world.
What if God is not a personal God?

[psychoslice]

Originally Posted by Bluegreen

Most people think of God as a personal God, an entity who controls everything that happens on earth. It is the reason why people lose faith, get angry at God for what they see as injustices, pain and everything that is wrong (a judgement) with the world.
What if God is not a personal God?

That's it, god isn't a personal entity, this is a childish belief belonging to an immature believer, its a good start as it is a good start that children believe in fairy stories, but to the one who has matured spiritually , it is only a prison.

[Amilius777]

You gotta be careful with personalization and "loving God", because at the end of the day you could be plainly loving something that isn't even "God" to be begin with.

Take from the examples of Jesus and Buddha.

How did Jesus demostrate loving God? By caring for the needy, healing the sick, eating with all the classes, and living in harmony with everything. Thus loving one another and your self is an automatic of "loving God".

God is beyond personal/impersonal, force/person, life/death, good/evil, etc. God is the Ultimate Reality that can manifest as whatever he/she/it pleases.

Jesus merely called the Source- "Father" because the nature of the Source is a parental love, something that loves as a parent loves a child, it is unconditional is all it means.

[Miss Hepburn]

You left out a big way Jesus 'demonstrated loving God", his Father..he went off
in solitary prayer or communion with his Father so so so so often.

God is so inside us; He knows everything....He is digesting our food right now and knows our
thoughts before we think them....personal, impersonal .... whatever we do even if it is
somehow mixed up...He knows our hearts.


Psalm 139...one of the most touching declarations ever written....from David
to God...revealing the closeness of God....He made us in the womb, no matter
where we go we can not escape Him...loving Him in our minds...oh boy, does He know when
we give our thoughts to Him.

Plus what you said, Ammy....





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Originally Posted by Amilius777

How did Jesus demostrate loving God? By caring for the needy, healing the sick, eating with all the classes, and living in harmony with everything. Thus loving one another and your self is an automatic of "loving God".

God is beyond personal/impersonal, force/person, life/death, good/evil, etc. God is the Ultimate Reality that can manifest as whatever he/she/it pleases.

Jesus merely called the Source- "Father" because the nature of the Source is a parental love, something that loves as a parent loves a child, it is unconditional is all it means.

[Arcturus]

"god" is dependant on personal interpretation so to love it is to love a self projection of what you coinsider to be noble etc. problem with role models is that the person in themselves becomes irrelevant.