Am I allowed to feel good about myself?
Apart from your relationship with God, there is one relationship in your life that is more important than all the others. I don’t mean your marriage, your relationship with your children or grandchildren, or your closest friends.
Perhaps you have never realized that the most important relationship in your life is your relationship to yourself. That’s because the image you have of yourself affects every other area of your life.
That affects:
- Your emotional well-being.
- Your relationship with others.
- The way you deal with difficulties.
- Your ability to hope and dream.
- And even your life with God.
Everything will be better if you choose to accept and love yourself as the person that God created you to be.
Maybe you are reading this now and you think to yourself: “But I cannot possibly love myself. I have been rejected too many times. I make too many mistakes and I have too many weaknesses.”
I can understand if you feel that way because I have felt that same way for many years. But I want you to realize today:
God loves you with all your faults and weaknesses and has only good plans for you.
It doesn’t matter how often you have failed or where you think you have reached your limits. No matter how imperfect you sometimes feel — your heavenly Father accepts you, he appreciates you and he loves you unconditionally!
In Jeremiah 31:3 God gives us the following promise: “I have always loved you. Therefore I have kept my affection for you for so long”
Here is a little story that illustrates this very well:
A water carrier in India carried a pole on his shoulders with two large buckets attached to the ends. One of the buckets was intact, but in the other, there was a crack and when the man had reached his destination, it was always only half full. For two years, at the end of his long walk from the river, the water carrier always brought home only one full and half bucket of water. The intact bucket was, of course, proud of his achievement, but the bucket with the crack was ashamed of his imperfection. He was very unhappy that he only performed half as much as the other bucket.
Have you ever felt like that before? Insecure? Broken? Inadequate?
Read as the story continues.
After feeling like a pathetic failure for two years, the broken bucket said to the water carrier, “I am ashamed.” “Why?” the man asked. “What are you ashamed of?” “Well, because of my lack. You have to work so hard and you don’t even get full pay for your efforts,” said the bucket. The water bearer replied compassionately: “When we go back home today, I want you to look after the flowers along the way.”
And indeed, as they walked up the hill, the bucket noticed that on one side of the path, beautiful flowers were blooming everywhere. The man said to the bucket, “Did you notice that the flowers only bloom on your side of the path and not on the side of the other bucket? I always knew of your weakness and took advantage of it by sowing flower seeds on your side of the road. On our way home from the river, you watered the seeds day after day and for two years I have been picking a bouquet of these wonderful flowers over and over again and put them on my table. If it weren’t for you as you are, I could never have decorated my house with such beauty.”
And just like the broken bucket, God can use you to do wonderful things:
- You can be an inspiration to your children and grandchildren.
- You can encourage, uplift, and exhort the people around you.
- You can tell your personal story of faith to people who are going through difficult times.
You do not have to be perfect for God to use you. And you certainly do not have to be perfect for Him to love you. God does not require us to be perfect — he created us and he knows that we are human and that we make mistakes. Our job is to get up every day and do our best to act according to his word.
Yes, there will be times when we fail. But instead of being disappointed in ourselves and believing that God is angry with us, we can ask God for forgiveness, receive his mercy and grace, and go on with joy.
So I want to encourage you and tell you:
- Don’t be so hard on yourself!
- Accept God’s love!
- Accept yourself as a person loved by God!
- Enjoy every moment of your life that Jesus has acquired for you!
I want you to understand how deep and how infinitely great God’s unconditional love for you is! Always remember:
God loves you unconditionally.
Learn to see yourself as he sees you. When you realize how precious, how gifted, and how valued you are, every relationship in your life will improve, including the most important one: your relationship with yourself.
Do everything you can to be yourself!
PS: Here is a good quote that you can take to heart and share with others:
“Be yourself — everyone else already exists.”
— Oscar Wilde —
