You may wonder, why was I born? What am I to do with the life I have been given. When Jesus Christ was on this Earth, he answered these questions when he was asked what is the most important commandment that we should follow?
According to Mark 12:29-31,The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.There is no commandment greater than these.
So first, we should love God with all are heart, soul, mind and strength and second we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
I want to focus the rest of this formula on the importance of loving yourself. Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. But you can not love anyone if you do not first love yourself. The question for today is do you love yourself and are you taking care of yourself in the best manner possible?
I want to begin by telling you that you are special and divinely made. You were created by God. And that YOU ARE LOVABLE and GOD LOVES YOU! How do I know this? I know this because of what it says in Psalms 139:13-16. According to Psalms 139:13-16For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb.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.
If God loving put you together, you know that you are not a mistake, you were made on purpose. God created you so that your body could be the temple of God.You are special. Special enough to be formed by God himself. Therefore you are lovable and God loves you.
Your body is the temple of God. Did you know your body is the temple of God? According to I Corinthians 6:19-20: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Your body is the first gift God gave you. How are you treating your body? Are you honoring and taking care of it like the precious gift God has given you? Are you giving your body the proper nutrients, exercise and rest it requires? Are you taking care of your body the best way possible? Church. We treat the physical building of church how we should treat our bodies. We respect, honor and clean our churches to make sure it is an excellent representation of God when in fact our bodies are the temple of God. You would never think to fill up a church with junk and debris yet we constantly put junk and garbage in our bodies! As Romans 12:1 says "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of Gods mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." I urge you today to begin to honor your body, the temple of God, by treating it right. By right I mean eating good food (e.g. vegetables, fruit and lean cuts of meat) and by taking the time to exercise your body as well as dress appropriately. While here on Earth, you represent God and are ambassador of God. I encourage you to be the best representation of God on the planet!!
Remember to treat your temple like what it is, a temple. Stop abusing your body! Treat the gift of life with reverence and respect. Honoring God by taking care of the precious gift of life he has given you. From this point forward, make it a point to eat healthy, exercise and be the best representation of God on the planet. You will be glad that you did.
All of this is a form of worshiping God and taking the time to love and like yourself.
Besides eating healthy, and exercising, take the time to pick something about yourself that you like. It can be something small, but whatever it is, its yours. Love it. Loving it means taking care of it and nurturing it. And after you done that, pick something else about you and so on until you have done your whole body. Remember at all times you are special. Be gentle with yourself!
I remember when I started the process of loving and liking me. The only thing that I could find about myself that I truly liked were my feet. So what did I do? I got some Victoria Secret Lotion Pear Glace. I would loving lotion my feet everyday. Then eventually my mother bought me a gold toe ring for one foot and I bought myself a gold toe ring for the other. My feet felt loved. I felt loved. Then I picked something else about myself I liked. My hands. I started to get manicures, and to keep my hands moisturized. My hands felt loved. I felt loved. I felt myself loving and liking me. Then I said to myself, this feels good. Let me do this to my whole body. And that's how I learned to love and like me. What works for you may be different. Maybe it its your eyes, or hair, your pretty smile, or ears. Whatever it is, start some where.
Just know this. Regardless of the lies you were told growing up or even are hearing now, you are very special and deserve to love and like yourself. You should be having a love affair with yourself because if no one else on the planet is showing you love, you are showing yourself love. In the bible it tells you tell to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Most people focus on the love thy neighbor part. The key to the scripture is
love thyself. You can't give love if you don't know love. You can only give like. And there is a difference between liking and loving. Liking makes you loyal to something or someone and you are using your brain to process these emotions. Loving makes you feel with your heart, mind, body and spirit. It is unconditional, it goes the extra mile and takes you into the type of love that God feels for you.
Jesus asked us to do one thing because he wanted us to feel what he felt for us. Jesus also loved himself. How do I know? In order to love us so well and unconditionally give of himself, he had to first love himself unconditionally. He could only give to us what he was able to give to himself. Do you want to see your life improve, relationships be better and you be happier? Make sure you are loving all of yourself as best you can. At the bottom of this blog I have included a self-inventory. This self-inventory is designed for you to reflect on the positive attributes that you have so that you can start the process of loving yourself, to think about your future and the legacy you want to leave behind.
Self-Inventory
1. List Three Physical Attributes that you like about yourself.
2. List two personality traits that you are happy you have.
3. List three skills, talents or gifts that you have.
4. If you had a t-shirt that described you, what would it say?
5. If you had the choice of doing one particular thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
6. Close your eyes for a few moments and visualize something that would make you very happy at this time in your life, please write it down.
7.What is the one thing you really like about the person you call your best friend?
8. Do you possess the same quality that you listed in #7?
9. If you could instantly change one thing about yourself, what would it be and why?
10. What is the one thing people say to you, about how you impact them most frequently and do you agree or disagree? Why
11. What would you like people to remember most about you when it is all said and done? What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
From this formula, one legacy I hope you leave behind is that you did what Jesus Christ asked you to do: that you Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.And second Love your neighbor as yourself.
This was an excerpt from my book Lady Day's Pearls of Wisdom available in the store on www.ladycharmaineday.com, on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I pray that you have been blessed by this blog post and that God blesses you with the desires of your heart in the name of Jesus Christ. Until next time, take care of yourself and stay special!!!
#LadyCharmaineDay
Pastor, Unlimited Help On-Line Ministry
www.ladycharmaineday.com
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