Sometimes you just need to see yourself....differently

  Self-perception has been on my mind a lot lately.

My sister and I share a mind set that most of the at-risk kids we teach and help are struggling from a warped self-perception.  They live out the self fulfilling thoughts like ," I am a bad kid.  I am worthless.  I am mean."  Our job is to make them see that they are contributing and successful members of the community who have had a rough time and that rough times pass.

  My sister texted me a picture of she and her students working at the local soup kitchen this week.  My heart cheered.  Here it was--- a snapshot of possibility. The kids were making sandwiches, smiling, and working together for the good of others.   A stranger looking at this picture might mistake the kids for honor roll students, members of a Key Club, or a youth church group.  Each time she catches them being who they really are and shows them the evidence, they are nudged down the path of a different self-perception, a new reality.  I love my sister because she is my sister.  But the teacher in me loves her because she sees what others don't and pursues it relentlessly on behalf of her students' futures.

I have been thinking about self-perception in a different context also.

 I made two decisions this week regarding self-perception.

1. Knowing that how I see someone impacts significantly how they see themselves, I want to try to see everyone with more loving eyes.

2. Knowing that my own internal critic is tough, I want to try to see more of myself through the loving eyes of others.

The ability to see yourself and others differently... an everyday miracle  with lasting results.