Self-love is a quiet gentle spirit that whispers, “You are beautiful. You are special and so precious.” As a creation of God in His image, we were made very good. Hold on to what God says about you: Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good (Genesis 1:31a).
What we focus on becomes our reality. What are you looking at, and, more importantly, what’s looking back at you? Mirroring the cult of worldly fashion and following that idol can lead to a series of wrong choices from the way you colour or style your hair to the attire you wear. Reflecting the cult of worldly behavior and following that idol of selfish desires can lead to a series of wrong choices involving how you use your body in a fleshly thirst to “drink in” everything from fornication to drug and injections to “make this bigger” or castration to “make this go away.”
Our Creator God is an omnipresent source of love so pure and without any strings attached, completely unconditional; and He wants to share His love inside of you. Why reject this kind of love, agape? His love letter to us is found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a beginning with “Love is patient and kind.”
You must be patient with yourself. Being patient with yourself means to acknowledge the strengths or gifts or talents you have in you which make you unique from anyone else. Each of us is special in his or her own way—that’s the way God planned it. He did that so that we can learn to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves” in order that we share our uniqueness in ways that glorify His perfect design for our lives. When he contributes his gift of music and she shares her gift of digital multimedia development, the outcome is a fantastic multi-platinum hit—millions of copies of a collection of songs glorifying the Lord sold all round the globe.
means the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious; tolerance, understanding, determination, staying power with singleness of purpose. Life will not always go the way you want it, and you may “see” yourself at times struggling with the choice to either conform with what the world forces you to “see” or to “see” what your Creator wants you to “envision” yourself to be.
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
(James 1:4)
Self-love starts with humility, the fruit of patience, which is an emptying of every thought that goes against what God says about you, and allowing Him to fill you with the image of who you really are—intelligent, gifted, splendid, outstanding, creative, and purpose-driven unto excellence. All this was put in you the moment you received His breath of life. You were made in the image of God. Therefore, you possess His qualities.
Do let anyone or anything take that affirmation, that knowledge, away from you.
Ready for the application of self-love?
1. Get into a quiet place with a journal or a small notebook, pencil and pen.
2. With pencil, list what you don’t like about yourself (your weaknesses). Examine that list for a moment.
3. Ask yourself, “Why do I hate this about myself?” Take time to hear yourself. This is called introspection, taking time to listen to what’s going on inside of you.
4. With pen, number 1 to 100 and list all your strengths or good qualities by starting each sentence with, “I am . . . .” For example I am giving. You must complete the 100.
5. After reviewing your 100 special qualities or strengths, take your pencil and ask God to help you remove every negative thought you have about yourself and to transform your weaknesses into strengths. These are lies; and must be erased right now. Go on, erase them all.
You may be asking yourself, “How do I ask God for anything? I don’t know how to talk to God.” Jesus is God. He is your best friend. Talk to Him as you would a best friend. But first, in your humility, ask Him to come into your heart as Lord of your life and Savior from everything attacking your soul or peace of mind. Let Him fill you with His love and wisdom, the capacity to understand who you are and to love yourself patiently one day at a time. To love yourself completely, you must first love the One who created you.
Please, after reading this blog, if you have any questions or comments, send them to me. Let’s talk.
© 2021 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved. Published by The Light In Me Enterprise. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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