1. Looks aren’t the most important thing.

• Some attractive people even feel inferior because they think people only like them because of their looks and not their personality or other important traits.

2. Achievements aren’t the most important thing.

• Achievements always change. Sometimes you’re up, other times you’re down.
• Although some people have already achieved much, you don’t know if someday, you will even achieve more than they have already achieved. Your potential for achievement may even be greater.

3. Skills aren’t the most important thing because they can be learned.

4. Wealth isn’t the most important thing because they can be gained by means which does not in any way indicate that the person who gained them is far superior than the one who didn’t or chose not to use such means. Also, wealth can be found and it can be lost, it isn’t a permanent indicator of one’s worth. Even wealthy people don’t want others to fall in love with them just because of their money.

5. Beliefs are important, but just like skills, they can be learned, corrected or changed. And we all have the power and the freedom to do that.

6. Being unique is important because that makes you the only living person who can offer the world what you have. So why be afraid if you don’t fit in at times? Be proud that you can stand out!

7. There are many things that you can find good and lovable about you, things you may have ignored or taken for granted because you have always possessed them all these years. As proof, we get attracted with people who have positive traits that are similar to us. We may not have noticed it, but noticing them now, thinking about it and writing them down can help us believe that we have indeed been attracted by such traits, and if we have, then it is quite possible that other people will also be attracted by such traits that we already possess.

8. Instead of treating your mistakes as signs of your inferiority, why not treat them as lessons learned that will increase your wisdom and your strength, and therefore, increase also your self confidence?

9. Rejections by other people happen all the time, it doesn’t mean you’re less deserving of attention or love. For instance, isn’t it good to be rejected by people with bad habits and evil intentions? Doesn’t it say much about them as it does about you?

10. Some criticisms may be productive and we can learn much from them. Other criticisms merely indicate things that the person himself hates about himself and does not want to see in you. It does not even say whether he is right in hating such traits or whether he has merely associated such traits with other things he truly dislikes. Just think about the celebrities that you know who have often been criticized. Even truly good world leaders have been objects of criticism. But that doesn’t mean they deserved every criticism they got or that they should already lose confidence because of them.

Never Let Yourself Down

There will come a time when people would put you down.
People would judge you. Those who hardly know you. And those
whom you thought knew you well. You will look for comfort
but you will find none. You will wander the streets weeping
but not a friend will be in sight.
Never let yourself down. Take heart, for no matter how awful
the accusations against you are, you are still a child of God.
This is the time when your love for yourself will be tested.
Whether you will believe what others say about you, or whether
you will stand your ground because you know yourself best.
Take comfort knowing that you are never alone. God still
believes in you, you know. God loves you and sees in you
the person everybody else failed to see.
Don't fail to see that person. Never let yourself down.

If life is the most important possession, how come many people give up so early in their lives?  How can people of robust health at the very prime of their lives think that nothing more could be done to be happy and achieve their true desires?

“But there’s nothing more I could do, this is the end for me.”

“I’ve tried everything and nothing worked!”

“I can’t see how anything could still change.”

“I feel so exhausted, I’ve ran out of the will to live.”

With these words in mind, we can now see why life seems to be meaningless if combined with other factors such as exhaustion, hopelessness and seemingly insurmountable hedges.

It isn’t because life is over that one feels defeated, but that life could never change anymore into the kind of life one desires to have that causes one to consider all life as worthless.  But is it?  Are the blocks we’re surrendering to realistic obstructions that can no longer be overcome?

Let’s consider some of the hindrances that defeat our hope:

1. That we’ve ran out of strength

It is true that years of trials and suffering could so exhaust our strength that we may feel unable to carry on.  But exhaustion is not the same as death, and giving up is not the solution when all that we need to do is REST.

2. That nothing NEW is ever going to happen anymore

Boredom can easily sink in and render life tasteless.  It would seem that nothing new ever happens anymore.  But does it mean that nothing new will indeed happen in the future?  How could we know?  How could our words be so SURE?

We CAN’T predict everything that’s going to happen tomorrow.  We DON’T KNOW.  We don’t know the next person we’d meet that could make a difference in our lives.  We don’t know if we’ll get sick or if we’ll get well.  We don’t know the natural calamities that may strike any moment.  Maybe what we really mean is that we don’t want to hope anymore because we have been hurt so many times before.  Maybe we’re not merely expecting for a NEW thing.  Maybe what we want is a new development towards achieving our hearts desires.

3. That there’s NOTHING we could do anymore

Is it true that there is truly NOTHING more we could do?  Could it be that there is STILL SOMETHING we could do, but that we just DON’T KNOW it yet?  Or could it be that we’re just too tired or too hopeless to do it?  Could it be that we’re just too hurt to still try anything more?

How about being still?  How about waiting? Have we tried to wait to reap the results of our labor?  For just as there is time for a seed to grow, and for a flower to bloom, there must be some period of time between our efforts and the fruits we yearn to see.

How about asking for help? Have we already sought the help of others who could be in the position to help us?  Or have we sought only from those who already disappointed us in the past and therefore, we think everyone else will just be the same?  Have we sought God’s help?  Have we tried to trust Him and allow Him to show us a different way?

In order for new things to come, we have to try new things and embark on the uncertain, on paths we’ve never known before.

4. That we’ve already tried EVERYTHING

EVERYTHING is a very encompassing word.  Is it possible to have already done everything?  Maybe what we mean is that we have already done everything within our powers, within our limitations.  Still, could it be that we don’t know some part of us that has already become stronger through the years?  Could it be that doing everything IN THE PAST is not the same as doing everything NOW in our present capacity?

Doing everything could also mean to us as doing everything that had been expected of us.  It could mean doing everything we thought should be done, the way it has always been done, the way it worked for other people, or the way we thought things ought to work.

Could it be that we could still do something but doing that thing would be so new we’re afraid where it would eventually take us?  In other words, could there be ANOTHER WAY?

Which doors have been closed?  Which paths have been blocked?  Are all paths blocked or are there just some paths you DON’T WANT to take anymore thinking you already know where it would take you?

Life is Precious

Life is still precious, a gift that would never have been given if it isn’t worth anything.  Don’t give up yet.  Rest and renew your strength.  Then try something new, ask for help, ask even for hope that it may be found again.

You’re not the same person today.  Your hurts have made you wiser; your trials have made you stronger.  There is a different future now from the one you saw before. Try to see it with your new eyes, and with your new heart.

Years of mistreatment and abuse from the very people who should have protected you may have done it. Countless arrows of harsh criticisms fired at you may have played its part.  And wrong religious beliefs in a harsh and vengeful God who could never be pleased may have made the final straw that finally crippled you and prevented you from loving yourself enough.

Love your neighbours as you love yourself.  God spoke with the presumption that you already know how to love yourself.  But how about for people who do not even know how to love themselves? Did God ever tell them not to learn to love themselves?  What happens when you don’t love yourself enough?

When you don’t love yourself enough:

• you allow people to mistreat you and to continue to mistreat you
• you try to please other people feeling it’s your obligation, not because you want to
• you feel guilty when good things come your way
• you feel that God doesn’t want you to be happy and He cannot forgive your imperfections
• you feel suspicious when people treat you well or become extra-generous
• you feel that it’s your fault when things go wrong
• you pity yourself easily when someone criticizes you
• you don’t feel comfortable when you look at yourself in the mirror

At first glance, it might seem that this lack of love for isn’t so harmful in our relationship with others.  But how could we even have a basis for loving other people when we can’t even love ourselves? By which standards are we going to treat them when we can’t even treat ourselves well?  When we don’t love ourselves enough, we also lose the capacity to love other people.

Following are some more of the consequences of not loving ourselves enough:

• we allow others to think that it is tolerable to abuse other people
• we find it hard to receive love
• we become prone to depression and hopelessness
• we sabotage our own success because we believe we don’t deserve it.
• subconsciously, we even reject God’s blessings thinking God could never really be concerned with our happiness.

It isn’t a sin to love yourself.  God loves you, and if it’s an evil thing to love someone such as you are, why is it that God continues to love you still?

What’s wrong is when we love ourselves above our neighbours, not caring if we hurt others just so we could get what we want.  We also go wrong when we love ourselves or our neighbours above God, for only God could make us fully happy, and it is from Him where all love comes from.  God is Love Himself.

Do you love yourself enough?