By Nancy Virden (c)2020

Ego-centric. At first the term meant nothing to me when a therapist suggested years ago I might be that. He explained ego-centrism is when people put themselves in the middle of a story as if they are the reason for events having little to none connection to them.

For example, a woman I met assumed that when people laughed in her presence, they were laughing at her. Another woman reacts negatively if someone doesn’t send her a card on a special day or fails to smile just right in gratitude for a gift. She immediately assumes the person who failed to meet her expectations is angry or trying to treat her poorly in some fashion to prove a point.

These are acts of ego-centrism. I’ve no memory what caused the therapist to say that about me, but it was painfully shocking. Ego-centric is not the kind of person I want to be! Change in that area became a determined focus.

Once the term made sense though, I realized my spiritual ego-centrism. God’s love for me seemed like pity. He loved everyone else, but me- he tolerated. That kind of thinking is flip-flop pride. If I am the only one… do you see it?

Of course God’s love transcends pity. His mercy is not because I or anyone else is a nothing and only with a sigh and clothes-pinned nose can he love us. No, he knew everything each of us would become, what would happen to us, and how our beliefs would form. He knew in advance that sometimes we would cause hurt for others, and how much we would stab his heart with unbelief and sin.

The Creator knew all that before he gave us life, and made us anyway. Why? He loved you and me before we were born, his plans for us are not thwarted, his ultimate goal is to spend eternity with us because he loves and wants to be with us that much.

Love may seem too fragile and not worth the risk. The opposite is true with the unconditional love of God. All his heartache IS worth it to him. We are worth it because he says so.

YOU are worth all the endless love he wants to give; he gave you life so he could love on you forever.

Today’s Helpful Word

Psalm 139:13-17

For you created my inmost being;  you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!

Always the Fight Ministries (ATFM) has been displaying compassion for those fighting mental illness, addiction, or abuse since 2012. Nancy is the founder and voice of ATFM and openly shares her emotional resurrection from despair.

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NOTE: I am not a doctor or a mental health professional, and speak only from personal experiences and observations. In no way is this website intended to substitute for professional mental or behavioral health care.

If you are feeling suicidal, or concerned about someone who is, in the U.S. call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or for a list of international suicide hotlines, go here.

If you are suicidal with a plan, immediately call 911 in the U.S. or go to your nearest emergency room. In the EU call 112. (For other international emergency numbers, go here ). Hope and help are yours!

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188, per BibLe Gateway. All rights reserved. Retrieved from https://www.biblegateway.com/