Low Self-Esteem Healed

For all of my life before coming to Plainfield I had very low self-esteem. Because of how poorly I felt about myself, I was willing to accept being treated very badly, to the point where I didn’t even feel like it was all that concerning if the people around me hated me or berated me verbally or even were physically violent to me. For myself, I had no boundaries that I made other people respect, because I had never learned to respect or care for myself. I was always a large guy, and because I COULD take the abuse, for some reason I thought I SHOULD take it. And when I was in romantic relationships, because I felt that loyalty was perhaps the most important trait, there was quite literally nothing that my partners could do to me that would have had me end the relationship, short of they themselves ending it.

This is why I am so grateful for Christian Science and for all I have learned here in Plainfield. Perhaps the first lesson I learned here that helped me was that our loyalty should be to God only, and never to person. I have since further learned that a misplaced sense of human duty will lead to moral idiocy, and when I look back on my past I can sure see that I allowed a lot of idiotic and immoral behavior because I thought a loyal person looked past the faults of others. It is no wonder I came to such a low place before coming here.

Another lesson I learned, was that since I — and all of us — are children of God, we should never accept any behaviors from those around us that demean us, or that we wouldn’t want to happen to other people, because to accept such behavior is to condone it, and to condone it is to place the temptation before others to act in such a way. Everyone loses when we forget our divine origin, and when we fail to follow the Golden Rule at all times. What a blessing it has been to me to be a member of this church and to learn what Christian Science has to impart regarding our oneness with God.

I am so grateful for the complete change to my character which the Christian Science that is taught here, and those years of practitioner support I was blessed with, brought about in me. I cannot really convey the full sense of relief and joy I now feel being free of that old self-loathing I used to be weighed down with each day. God is so good!