Self Love, The Best Love

Don't ever criticize yourself.

Don't go around all day long thinking,

'I'm unattractive, I'm slow, I'm not as smart as my brother.'

God wasn't having a bad day when he made you...

If you don't love yourself in the right way, you can't love your neighbor.

You can't be as good as you are supposed to be.
- Joel Osteen

One of the major lessons that I had to learn over the past year was getting back to being me. To some that would mean getting back to loving yourself. There are a multitude of reasons an individual could drift away from loving themselves. It can be anything from financial, a family crisis, illness, all the way to love. Sometimes a person experiences a combination of all of things that could go wrong. That's the ultimate breakdown of an individuals mentality. But as I always remember, whether you choose to believe or not, is that God doesn't give you more than you can handle. I always remember that because it holds true, you may not think it at the time, but if you choose to dig your feet in and believe in Him to get you through, then you'll make those strides towards overcoming whatever is hindering you.

I'm a very stubborn person anyways, so when I can dig my feet in and say that I didn't let something defeat me and I turned it around and defeated it, that brings satisfaction. Overcoming obstacles and defeating those demons will always make you appreciate life more and more. Talking to a lot of my life long friends about this year made me realize that I wasn't the only one going through it. This blog came as a result of talking to one of my friends about her being beat down by relationships, financial problems, and troublesome relationship. In that moment of her just breaking down and crying, I forgot about all of my problems and tried to figure out the best way to help her. I was also more so inclined to help because she's typically not the type to spew out her problems, but rather face them head on.

So at the end of telling me about her troubles, she asked me one simple question, what do I do? Now usually when someone asks you that, they don't really want you to tell them what to do, they just want you to listen to them. I had to learn that this past year too. But after trying to demonstrate just listening she told me, and I quote lol, "I don't need that listening nonsense, I need you to do the Devon thing and help me figure this out". I kid you not, right after that statement, I literally typed out this list on my phone in 5 short minutes. I don't know where I got it from, I don't know how it came to me, I really think it was God's doing, but regardless of the fact, this is what I told her:

1. Submitting to The Lord. | You need him in order to be a better you. You have to really really believe and feel this. Give all your problems and burdens to him & let him guide you

2. You have to fall in love with yourself first. | Truly know yourself & your needs. Take the time to look into your own soul & gauge your worth to yourself & the world.

3. Go for YOUR happiness. | When you figure out what truly makes you happy or what you need to do to get there, do it, don't waste a single moment. Be a better you because you want to be the best you for you.

4. Don't block the blessing. | When you finally get there then don't block your blessings from The Lord. By this point you'll know what you will want in your life. Usually all the blessings you'll receive in life will come around when you're doing some you love that makes you happy.

5. And lastly, Work for that love. | It's going to be hard, and I mean extremely hard, but you have to be willing and open minded because that is your blessing. The battle is to get to Him, the war is loving Him forever properly & with the love & help of The Lord, you will never, ever come up short.

That's what I told her, and needless to say, she was quite alright after I sent that. I tend to forget sometimes that you have to sit your problems to the side and help someone to realize how much you can help yourself. That same advice that I gave her, I took and used for myself. As much as she needed to hear that, I needed to hear it too. I had this talk with her back in April and I will tell you now that after implementing this into my life, I'm better. She's doing great for herself right now with big goals on the horizon. It's all about the support and letting it be known that God is always here, all you have to do is reach out and ask for the help.

What do you think about the list, is there something that can be added or taken away from it? Does it help you? Let me know in the comments section below.

Until next time guys.