Jesus said in Matthew 22:39, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Joel Osteen says, "The prerequisite of loving others is to love yourself. If you don't have a healthy respect for who you are, and if you don't learn to accept yourself...faults and all, you will never be able to properly love other people....you can't give away what you don't have. If you don't love yourself, you're not going to be able to love others. If you're at strife on the inside, feeling angry and insecure about yourself, feeling unattractive, feeling condemned, then that's all you can give away. On the other hand, if you'll recognize that God is working on you, and in spite of your flaws and weaknesses, you can learn to accept yourself, then you can give that love away and have healthy relationships. This basic principle could change your relationships with people around you." When we aren't loving toward ourselves, we have a tendency to think that it only affects our own selves, when, in reality, it affects every one around us. It even affects how we feel toward God. God created us so it is not very respectful of Him to criticize what He made!
If you are challenged with achieving and maintaining a healthy weight like I am, it is helpful to remember that God approves us unconditionally and is our advocate on our weight loss journey. He helps us and guides us. He is our best friend!! Hebrews 12:1-2 says "to look away from everything that distracts." Criticism of ourselves is a distraction from enjoying God's wonderful plan for our lives. We should wake up daily with a grateful heart that God has given us a marvelous home for our eternal spirit....our body!
Weight is my personal challenge. Yours might be something else, but whatever our challenges in life are, we need to realize that we have God's stamp of approval. We need to add our own stamp of approval to who we are!
Love and Light,
Patty
