I have spent so much of my life caring about what other's think of me. Hours upon hours of spinning my wheels making sure everyone else is happy with who I am. If I wasn't fretting over words that were said to me....I'd beat myself up internally for what I thought of me.
Analyzing. Judging. Condemning. No grace. No mercy.
These words don't describe how I was treated by others. They describe how I treated myself.....my own worse enemy.
Isn't that true? We have an internal dialogue that goes on with ourselves. We can actually be our own bully. We become our own enemy. Grace abounds but only for others. Mercy is given but only for friends and family. We're told to not judge and so we try to let people work out their issues with God. But when did that grace, mercy and lack of judgement include ourselves? When have we extended the same gifts of God to ourselves? Is it okay to just say, "I like me"....and live a life that shows it? Or is it more godly to constantly analyze every moment we stumble, every time we fail, each step that isn't perfect?
Psalm 139:14-16
"I praise you because
I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be."
YES!!! It is more than okay to like ourselves! In fact, since we are made in God's image....since we are fearfully and wonderfully made by our Father....since every good and perfect gift comes from Him....since He desires a relationship with us....since He sacrificed His own Son for us....since all the days ordained for us were written in His book before one of them came to be (Ps.139:16).....I would say that HANDS DOWN, we are to LOVE ourselves!!
It's been several years now, that I have focused more on Him and less on me. The freedom is huge! God does not waste time on garbage. Let's start praising Him for who He is and living a life by His Spirit!! Not a life full of regrets, judgment and hate....but seriously praising God and worshiping Him by the way He created us! Let's not waste our life so focused on ourselves that we forget the One who made us......the One who says "you are mine".
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine." Isaiah 43:1
