Loving Yourself: Are You A Caterpillar Or A Butterfly?
by Angie Lewis  
Heaven Ministries

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

Copyright 2006 Angie Lewis ~ Heaven Ministries
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