Love Your Heart
The first and best Valentine of all has to do with being our own Valentine 365 days a year! Yep! With all of the warm emotions, expectations for good, and expressions of kindness. When we love our heart, it defines our true belief system and creates our character.
What? To begin with, love has such a wide realm of meaning, it’s hard to say when one loves or not or how one loves. Love is a noun, as in something that we have – an intense feeling of deep affection. Love is also a verb, as in something that we do – to like or enjoy (someone, an action or something) very much. A good example: someone will come along and say, “Isn’t she cute, awww,” about the ugliest puppy in the world. We just all don’t view love in the same way, it has an individualized perspective.
Then there’s this: From which angle do we view the heart? From the physical side, a muscular organ in our bodies that pumps the blood through the circulatory system – it needs nutrition, exercise, and rest. As the center of a person’s being, containing thoughts and emotions, like self-esteem, values, compassion, and loyalty – it craves understanding, kindness, and tenderness. Then there’s the vital innermost essence, the home of our spirit – the place where connections with God have their origin.
To love your heart then is to encounter it from all points of view! We allow this intense feeling of affection to nurture our physical selves, to accentuate a positive self with tender loving care and to satisfy our spirit by growing closer to God.
We’ve got a New Year, and surely you and I want newness for ourselves. Doing what we’ve always done just gives us what we already have. This is not talking about how we look from the outside – we are beautiful women of God, fearfully and wonderfully made. Our focus is on the inner self: blotting out what doesn’t reflect how God sees us, and filling the void with the truth of the word for everyday experiences. Our Father gives us “our daily bread” for good reason. The enemies’ first attack is against our mind, what we think, we want, and we feel.
Our saving grace is matching the “inner me” with what we believe – to body and soul (mind, will, and emotions). As women, we are great at taking care of others and juggling many things at once, however to the detriment and burnout of self! What good is it to “perform” like a giant and “believe” like a wimp? It is what we believe about ourselves that creates change and ushers in the peace of God. Let’s be real, we can be two different people living as one. Because who you and I are when we are in “believe” mode is way different from who we are when we don’t believe.
How much do you love you? Who are you for yourself? Let’s consider the statements below and make a list of how you love you.
Can you do these things?:
1. Forgive yourself for all the mistakes you’ve made in the past.
Stop judging yourself so harshly. You cannot go back in time. It’s done, but you can change how the future looks when you change your mind about you.
2. Let go of all the harmful thoughts you have about yourself.
Just because you know the good and bad you have done does not make it impossible for you to let go. Learn to respect yourself and only accept that kind of treatment from others.
3. Accept yourself, flaws and all.
Yes, embrace that frizzy hair, those thunder thighs, your unique shape (fat, thin, tall, short), light or dark skin, whatever. We are all beautiful, so don’t let someone or something else take away how you accept yourself.
4. Give yourself permission to take care of yourself.
Always putting the needs of others ahead of yourself is dangerous and can be habit-forming. Allow the highest, best thoughts of yourself to permit you to do well for yourself. Don’t feel bad for prioritizing your self-care. Put at least an hour a day into “me time,” and each week do something for yourself. Make sure that some activities on your to-do list include things that you like.
5. Be who you really are.
Sometimes we get things twisted between being who we are and being who we think others want us to be. If you’ve never spent time discovering your true self and all of your potential, it’s time you did. Knowing you is the only protection against living a false, sad life.
It’s a NEW DAY!
The real you is not the person doing things to be somebody. It’s the person who already is somebody doing things. When we take responsibility for who we are first, and then respond to life from a place of peace, everything changes. Want a new year, or better yet, a new day—365 of them? Bring your gift, the person who lives behind the issues of life, into focus. Keep praying – bless the Lord at all times, let your praise continually be in your mouth. Trust God – He will do what He said He would, He’ll never leave nor forsake you. Do not quit – press on towards your goals in the Lord, He answers prayers. Remember, you are a warrior – there’s greatness inside of you, with Jesus we win, our GOD – unconditional LOVE! Will you start now to begin again ? The best YOU is yet to come!
Gayle Smith, Faith Forward Author
