Love yourself

Lev. 19:18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of yourpeople, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD. NIV 

Most people think that anyone who loves himself is selfish. But this is not always true. God gave us the standard for loving our neighbour. We must love our neighbour as we love ourselves. We might say that loving ourselves sounds selfish, but we can love ourselves in a way that will not be selfish. Until we learn to love ourselves the right way, we cannot love others well. We give what, to us, is very good and pleasant. If our standard of good for ourselves is low, we will not offer more than that without grumbling.

Whitney Houston in one of her very popular songs, “The Greatest Love of All” said, “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” Those who treat themselves badly find it hard to treat others kindly.

We must understand that if there is any special treatment we must give, the first person to receive such is treatment is us. Even in sacrificing ourselves, the worth of the sacrifice is related to how much we value ourselves. God wants the best, and the best should be of great value. The sacrifice Christ made of Himself is of high value because He loves himself, He, being the firstborn of God, and loved by God.

As we through life, we must have it on our minds that we deserve the best; and if no one will grant us the best, we must do so ourselves.

It starts from the mind

Romans 12: 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. NIV

The mind is one part of the human system that controls the rest of the person. Whatever we achieve, in the true sense of achievement, starts from our minds. And if we fail in anything, we must know that that failure started in our minds. That is why we must take control of our minds.

Whatever your mind says is possible, you can achieve it if you don’t give on the way. You may encounter difficulties but you will find solutions to the problems that come up. 

If you want to change something around you, change it in your mind. We do things that our minds tell us are good. If you change your perception about anything, you will start reacting to that thing differently. This happens to us most of the time unconsciously. For example, we refuse to eat certain foods we liked in the past when we hear about how dangerous that food could be to our health.

We can take control of our mind by consciously telling ourselves what we want to do. If you have a tough task to perform, tell yourself it is easy. Your mind will find easy ways of accomplishing the task. But if you continue thinking about how difficult it is, you will never achieve anything.

Take control of your mind and you will succeed.

Honesty: Your Best Policy

Mat 5:37 But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil. NKJV

It is easier these days to tell a lie than say the truth. The consequences of saying the truth are more pleasant and therefore more desirable than speaking the truth. Sometimes you must resist pressure from colleagues in order to say the truth. But the consequences of not being frank are long lasting, even though they are negative.

If you say ‘YES’ today, instead of ‘NO’, you must be ready to keep saying ‘YES’ when that particular question comes up. The day you say ‘NO’, you should be ready to provide explanations which make you unreliable. Once you obtain that attribute of unreliability, even those who encouraged you to lie will doubt you the next time you speak.

The world is looking for honest people to do business with. It is better to say NO and be free than to say you will do something and fail when you know you can’t do it. It is better to refuse a job with tight deadline than to take it and disappointed the client.

Let your yes be YES, and those who hate you today will praise you years later for being honest. But if you try to be nice, those you are trying to please today will be the first to condemn you.

Let your yes be a big YES, and when you must say no, fear not. Let your no be NO.