In my experience, self-hatred is the dominant malaise crippling Christians and stifling their growth in the Holy Spirit.

we unwittingly project onto God our own attitudes and feelings toward ourselves... But we cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves -- unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely.

God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don't need to apply spiritual cosmetics to make myself presentable to Him. I can accept ownership of my poverty and powerlessness and neediness.

Quia amasti me, fecisti me amabilem. (In loving me, you made me lovable.)

The Christian with depth is the person who has failed and who has learned to live with it.

The first step in faith is to stop thinking about God at the time of prayer.-

Whenever I allow anything but tenderness and compassion to dictate my response to life--be it self-righteous anger, moralizing, defensiveness, the pressing need to change others...I am alienated from my true self. My identity as Abba's child [a child of God] becomes ambiguous, tentative and confused