Added to the reading list

“…the self God loves, the self God is in relationship with, is your actual self.  God isn’t waiting for you to become thinner or heterosexual or married or celibate or more ladylike or less crazy or more spiritual or less of an alcoholic in order to love you.   

Also, I would argue that since your ideal self doesn’t actually exist, it would follow that the “you” everyone in your life loves is your actual self, too.”
Nadia Bolz-Weber, Shameless, (2019), pp. 180-181.

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