Loving Yourself

Love yourself

When it comes to our health, we tend to put ourselves last. We tend to focus more on our loved ones, work, and financial responsibilities. This month I want to encourage you to take time and permit yourself to focus on your needs. Helping others is the right thing to do but, we need to be a hundred percent to do that. Even Jesus went away to recharge and pray.

Focus on Our Health

We are given one body, and how we take care of it will determine how we will live. As a kid, I felt invincible. I would do anything and everything because I never thought about the consequences. Even as I grew older, I never made my health a priority. It was work, kids, social life, and marriage. I wouldn’t go to the doctor’s when I was sick because who has time for that? I would persevere and fight any cold, any pain, or any mental issue with a prescription from Dr. Mom. And even though it wasn’t life-threatening, I slowly deteriorated inside. Now at 40, I realize what I doing to myself. What I put into my body, and what I mentally think of myself will determine how I live later in life.

So I want to tackle each obstacle and give you some ideas that will help you see the need and encourage you to love yourself so that later you love yourself.

Colds are a fact of life. We all get them. When we get a cold, our body is saying our immune system is down and it’s struggling to fight the germs we come into contact with. How can we help our bodies fight better against colds and viruses? Eat healthier, and take vitamins that will help boost your immune system. During our youth, our immune system was at its best. Our bodies could fight most colds. But as we age, our immune system slows down. Our body can’t produce antibodies quickly enough and we are more susceptible to a virus. Adding vitamins through food, drinks, or taking supplements will help your body keep up and stay healthier. The first step I would encourage you to do is to eat healthily. This will help you with your immune system but it will also help you with your weight. When you have extra weight, it makes it hard for you to stay active. Adding more weight to your body forces you to carry the extra weight and will make you tired quicker. A great way to help your body with digestion and overall health is to do something for 30 mins after you eat; taking a walk, tidying up the house, playing with your kids outside, or riding your bike. It doesn’t need to be something high-intensity but it should be something. Sitting in front of the tv is probably the worst thing for us, yet we all do it. We give ourselves the excuse, " I worked hard enough today this is my break time". Just remember what you put in is what you get out. If we don’t fuel our bodies with the right energy, our bodies won’t perform well. The energy our body creates is used for brain function and to build stamina and muscles. If you don’t properly fuel your body and exercise you will lose focus and strength to continue.

I’m not saying go to the extreme; full-on diet, vegan, vegetarian, or keto. I'm saying eat less of the unhealthy foods like; sweets, carbs, and processed food and go with healthier alternatives. The world wants us to be a beam pole, the restaurant industry wants you to be fat, and God says your body is your temple. In other words, you need to treat your body right. When we don’t take care of ourselves, it's like picking a scab that will later become a scar. It will create permanent issues that medicine will help but will not fix.

Again I say, you only have one life, one body, take care of it!

Christ Love

So many people struggle with loving themselves! We have been taught Faith, Family, and then others. What you don’t hear is the word “you”, but it's in all three. God wants you to put Him first. He is the foundation for our life. His Word shows us how to live, how to treat and teach others. We are to go to Him, by reading the Bible, through prayer, and in worship (song). But how is being with God going to help us love ourselves? Glad you asked. God wants to teach us how to love ourselves so we know how to love others. Example: you won’t yell at yourself if you didn’t take out the trash right? Of course not. You would say, oops I forgot to take out the trash on my way out this morning. Another reason is so we see how we want to be loved. Others can’t love us unless we let them know how we receive love. The book, Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, is a great book to see how you receive love. When we feel love from others, we will want to give them love back.

You can’t have Mr./Mrs. Perfect unless you know what truly makes you happy, feel valued, and appreciated.

God also wants us to forgive. We all make mistakes and then hold ourselves at an unworthy value. Saying things like, if they only knew my past they wouldn’t want to be my friend. God says, to ask Him for forgiveness and He will forgive. Once God takes away that sin, you are free from it. Don’t let your past define you or make you doubt your self-worth. God said you are forgiven and you need to move on. Allowing yourself to love yourself for all the good you bring and not the bad.

Loving our family is taking time for ourselves. They need you to be at your best, so if you need a nap or need to talk to someone, permit yourself to do that. I remember taking several naps with my son when he was a toddler. Giving yourself permission to “Take 5” and recharge will allow you to love and appreciate your time with your family. You need to give them your full undivided attention. Another way to show love to ourselves through our family is with an activity schedule. Don’t overbook with double or even triple events going on. For example; Timmy has baseball at 4:00, Emma has dance at 4:30 both ending at 5:00. Plus you still have a PowerPoint slide to make for tomorrow’s meeting. Make your schedule fit your life. So put the kids' activities on different days, and have your spouse/friend/family, help you. If your child is in more than one sport they might have to choose which one they will need to give up.

Loving others isn’t just family, friends, or neighbors. Others is everyone. Nowhere in the Bible does God say, "you can only love certain people". Jesus, while on Earth, showed love to everyone. We are all sinners and all deserve God’s anger and punishment. Yet He says, “I love you and I forgive you”. So how do we love others? Love like you want to be loved; with no judgment, with mercy, and with a giving heart. We all have struggled at one time so we all know how it feels to be an outcast. When we mess up do we want others to throw the book at us? Of course not. We see our mistakes and ask for their forgiveness. We want them to give us grace or mercy on the situation. Like you those people want and deserve ours too. Sometimes we need to listen to their story to understand where they are in life. When we listen, we can see they need help. I came across a family who lost their house. They needed help with the essentials food and clothes. They knew people were judging them because of their appearance, but they don’t know the “why” behind it.

In conclusion, you have to be a hundred percent to give a hundred percent. We have to give our heart, mind, soul, and attention to those around us. If we don't we are devaluing ourselves. God has a purpose for each one of our lives. He has given us talents to share with others. This makes our world complete. I remember saying “I want to be more like so in so. It took me a long time to love myself and see that I am just as special as they are. We need to stop keeping up with everyone and see our purpose. God gave us our talents that display our beauty. We just need to love ourselves more and show it.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY