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Good morning. There was a splendid interview this week with actor Miriam Margolyes, in which she proclaimed, in relation to the achievement of being so long with her partner, “But I am a remarkable person”. It brought to mind another remark I heard recently at the memorial service for a friend. Just before he died, he said “I’ve been terrific haven’t I?” Those round the bed assured him he had, and indeed he had. But those self-affirmations made me wonder how they fit in with Christianity’s perceived emphasis on self-disapproval. During the Lenten season Christians are encouraged to examine themselves. But are we to go in for self-denigration, feeling bad about oneself, or for self-congratulation and feeling good about oneself as revealed in those remarks? Above the ancient oracle at Delphi were carved the famous words “Know thyself”. This is difficult enough to do in itself, so beset are we by evasions and deceptions. But the situation is not helped in our society at the moment by a social media full of likes and dislikes and hurtful comments. Trying to know oneself means above all trying to be honest . It is not about forcing oneself to feel either bad or good or anything- it is simply about wanting to be real. But then, from a Christian point of view, this process goes along with knowing we are of worth, we have value, we have potential. It is I think no accident that Miriam Margolyes came from a close knit Jewish family whom she loved dearly. Her wonderful sense of herself clearly comes from that love. For it is the nature of love first of all to affirm the worth of the other as themselves for themselves. So in a different context the thousands of teachers in school today, despite all the very real difficulties and frustrations, will be trying to convey to their pupils a sense that they have value and potential. And what a difference a good teacher can make to a person’s whole life. This week Melvyn Bragg wrote about how he was due to leave school at the age of 15 but, unknown to him at the time, his teacher went to see his parents three times to persuade them to let him stay on. The teacher believed in him. Lent is a time when Christians are asked to be real with themselves and at the same time to know we are believed in, valued and accepted as the person we are. But whatever ones beliefs, religious or secular, that ancient Greek text, that we are to know ourselves, still stands for something important in a society so much dominated by instant opinions which can so easily depress or falsely elate us.