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Loving
Yourself: Are You A Caterpillar Or A Butterfly? How is your
relationship with yourself? Do you have a
relationship with you? I encourage you
to ponder into the deep side of you and meditate upon the mysteries of
who you are, or better yet, of whom you can become. I firmly believe
that before we can have significant and lasting relationships with
others, we need to understand the person we are now and the person we
can become. I urge you to
break free from your inhibitions and ask yourself, "Who am I?"
"What is my purpose in life?" Answer with complete
truth and honesty. Then live your life off of that foundation. Base your
life upon who you are. Break free from your doubts
and fears and be happy loving who you are. Once you love who you are,
you will be totally free to love others. I believe our
whole purpose on this earth is to love others with complete and true
love. We certainly cannot love properly if we are
hiding inside our insecurities and not really loving ourselves. Hiding
behind a sea of emotions or a certain weakness will keep us from growing
into the person we were meant to be. Being afraid to
love others because of being hurt in the past also keeps us from
trusting others enough to love. The first step in
growing out from self is to understand what your purpose, goals, ideas,
and dreams in life are. Believe it or not, some folks aren't sure what
their purpose and goals in life are and live in a depressed state of
aimless wondering and disillusionment. But it doesn't have to be like
that! The focus here is
to grow out from self by knowing first, who we are, and then secondly
working towards the substance of who we are. Who are you? What are you?
Where are you going? Why are you going? Find it, seek it, acknowledge
it, know it, and go after it with gusto! It’s like a
caterpillar that eventually metamorphosis (grows) into a beautiful
butterfly. All of God's creation has the ability to become beautiful
butterflies. But not all of God's creation will become a beautiful
butterfly. Why is that? A caterpillar doesn’t allow himself to be free
from self. Whether it is through a weakness or fear,
a caterpillar must break free from what is holding him back by realizing
he can become a butterfly. A butterfly is
free from the restraints of self. A butterfly has grown out from self
and now seeks to love others with all the love he or she has while a
caterpillar is still seeking to be loved by others. Unfortunately, many
caterpillars do not know they have the ability to become butterflies and
so remain in their cocoon until they die off. I encourage you
to come out of your cocoon and become the butterfly you were meant to
become. Learn to know who you are by having a relationship with yourself
by growing out from any negativities wedged within your mental and
spiritual capacities. Low self worth,
fear, mistrust, insecurities, sin, and unbelief will keep you from
discovering the natural and true person you really are. But when you
have enough belief in God then you know He will keep you safe from those
feelings that plague you or that would keep you from growing into the
butterfly you were meant to be. The fearful and
insecure person is the one who hides behind negative emotions and is
enveloped within a particular weakness in their life. Unbelief is a
weakness. Unbelief in the Creator is the biggest and most damaging
weakness a person can carry upon their shoulders. For fifteen years
I lived in my weakness of unbelief, which prompted my drinking, which
fueled my addiction to alcohol. After becoming sober, I lived three more
years basking in negative emotions. During those years, I didn't know
how to have a relationship with myself because my relationship was with
the bottle. I was rebellious to my marriage and God. My low
self-esteem kept me living in a cocoon bound by a web of deceit that
kept me from growing into the beautiful butterfly I was meant to become.
I was afraid to grow out from self and get to know God. I encourage you
to get to know who you are, because that is what God wants for you. Come
out of hiding all you caterpillars in become free butterflies! Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17
Questions
1. How would you describe your relationship with yourself?
2. How is your relationship with God (Jesus Christ)?
3. How is your relationship with the person you married?
4. Who are you? (Child of God and Created by God?, or a child of something evolved from the world?) Who are you?
5. How can you become the person God created you to be? |