Loving Yourself So You Can Love Others WellSample

4) Ways to Love Yourself Better

A flower garden cannot grow without food, water, and nutrients. Your marriage cannot grow without the investment of work, time and effort. You cannot love others well from an angry, empty, broken heart. You cannot love others well when your life is full of fears and self-doubt. 

When we love ourselves well and invest in our hearts, then our family, our marriage, and our neighbors will reap the benefits. This is our responsibility! No one else can bringing healing and wholeness to OUR heart. This choice is yours and yours alone.

Is it easy or difficult to love and accept yourself? Is it easy for others to love you? Do you know your identity in Christ? Do you live in fear and self-doubt? I give you permission to be your best self! I give you permission to spend time working on YOU so that you can love others better. Please invest in this life-giving work. Remember that your “neighbor” is whoever is on your right and your left. 

Self-care is a biblical principle that is God-honoring. Selfishness is different to self-care. Being the healthiest, strongest, and best version of ourselves is what God desires for us. Here are a few ideas on how to love yourself well and invest into the soil of the garden of your heart. I pray that you recognize this time well spent as an investment into your wholeness, your purposes, and your peace.

• Prioritize time for self-evaluation and self-care.

• Give yourself grace to fail…then learn and “fail forward.”

• Don’t overthink your life.

• Be patient and kind with yourself. 

• Prioritize relaxation space/margin in your life.

• Identify your strengths and giftings and walk in them.

• Identify fears and seek resolutions.

• Identify lies that you believe to be true and replace them with your identity in Christ.

• Forgive yourself and accept that you are “perfectly imperfect.”

• Don’t waste energy on worry about things that you cannot control.

• Have hope in yourself…through hope in Christ.

• Let go of bitterness and unforgiveness. Forgive yourself. Forgive others.

• Do not live with an offendable heart. (YouVersion - Search for an Unoffendable Heart)

• Lead yourself in SPEAKING LIFE. (YouVersion - Speaking Life)

• Find REST FOR YOUR SOUL. (YouVersion -  Finding Rest for Your Soul)

• Let go of your “control freak.”  (YouVersion - Dying to Live)

• Develop the habit of a grateful heart. (YouVersion - Transforming Power of a Grateful Heart)

• Set wise boundaries. Protect yourself…keep yourself safe yet not hidden.

• Don’t be quick to anger…you deserve more peace

• Move your body. Ride a bike or go on a hike. Watch the sunset.

• Live an honorable life. Do not dishonor your precious self.

• Spend quality time investing in your relationship with your Abba Father.

• Release emotions that weigh you down and receive life-giving Biblical truth.

• Healthy people know about healthy rest…find your deep, Sabbath rest.