People who are honestly trying to follow the spiritual life often make the mistake of being too hard on themselves. Because they do not seem to be progressing as fast as they would naturally like, or because they find themselves repeating some old fault that they thought they had completely overcome, they feel discouraged, and condemn themselves mercilessly.
All this is foolish. If you are doing your best to use what Truth you know, at present, you are doing all that you have a right to expect of yourself.
Don’t be impatient with yourself—but this does not mean that you are to be lazy or complacent. Handle yourself as a wise parent handles an obstreperous child—kindly, patiently, but with gentle firmness, not expecting too much too quickly, but foreseeing inevitable growth and improvement.
…and all of you are children of the most high (Psalm 82:6).
Self condemnation is the flip side of self-righteousness. Both are sins that separate us from the love of God. One positions us beneath the love of God and the other places us above it. Both wrongly blind us to the truth that God loves us, not because we are good or bad, but because we are God’s children.
God instructs us to rejoice and be glad in each day and to be thankful for all things. If we love, believe in and trust God, we can not engage in self-condemnation. We can not condemn that which God loves.
So, when any feeling of self-condemnation enters our hearts, we must say, “God loves me, and so do I.” When we accept this truth, the prison of self-condemnation evaporates; not because we are good, but because God loves his children.
Loved by God,
Z gardener
Good Morning Garden 
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