Kevin Mitchell: Framed By God

 

As the host of The 10 Minute Relationship Talk I had the pleasure of interviewing Kevin Mitchell. He wrote a wonderful book called Framed by God: The Stories of My Life. Here is part of our talk.

 

Kevin: “I wrote the book, Framed by God: The Stories of My Life because I wanted to inspire young people and old people, alike, with how God touches life. He uses events in your past to shape and mold your future. And to help you develop godly characteristics, build up your self esteem and frame your life for success in your future”.

Alasha: “You talk about drowning and feeling worthless. That’s how the book starts out”.

Kevin: “It does not matter what people think about you, what people say about you. Your success is not determined by what people say or think, but by what you think about yourself and how you turn yourself over to God, who shows you your purpose and who you are in Him.

But if we understand who we are and our true value and self worth, then—when people come to you, then you understand that people have to show themselves of being worthy—of being in your presence or being a friend to you or being in a relationship with you, first. They have to present themselves in the best light that they are. And who they are. And the best of themselves to you, first! And then, if they don’t meet that criteria that’s been set and the standard that God says that you’re worthy of, you get to say, “You’re not for me!”

Love—the problem with society today—with this whole love-thing—is our lives are starting to imitate art. And, I’m saying that now we are too Hollywood. And, in Hollywood, everything’s just about a fairy-tale. How love is and how a marriage is supposed to be, in Hollywood, they’re married and then, two weeks later, they’re divorced. And, that’s not how a marriage is supposed to be. That’s not a real definition of love.

Love is a learned behavior; it’s not an emotion. You learn to love people through the good times, the bad times, their infrastructure in all these things. That’s when you learn to love somebody—and this—you can’t learn to love somebody until you love yourself.  And, once you’ve opened up yourself and know who you are, then you will understand what love is and how you’re supposed to be treated and loved, as a person, when you learn to love yourself. The value is based off of God’s word. What God did when he had us was he said he gave the best that he had for us to have that life. That we wouldn’t have to be in bondage; we wouldn’t have to be abused, we wouldn’t have to be mistreated in relationships like I was. He gave his best for us: his son, Jesus Christ! And that’s the ultimate illustration in an act of love. And, if we place our value and self worth on that, alone, we wouldn’t settle for anything less and settle for us getting abused and mistreated in relationships.

You can listen to the whole conversation on SoundCloud.

Check out Kevin’s self-study course Understanding Your Value on Dating Mechanics University!