Devine Intervention from a friend

Worthless or Worthy: How Do You See Yourself?

By Joyce Meyer (All the blue text in this post are the words of Joyce Meyer)

Do you like yourself? After years of trying to help people emotionally, mentally, spiritually and socially, it was a major breakthrough when I discovered that most people really don't like themselves. Some of them know it, while others don't even have a clue that this is probably the root of so many other problems in their lives.. 

I use to say to my daughters that I didn’t like myself all the time, and that if I could, I wouldn’t even be friends with me. Hmmmmm…shame on me! Pretty bad example I know. Sorry to anyone I ever said that too.  I was so wrong to say that. I don’t feel that way today. I do love Linda and appreciated her. I appreciate not only who she is today but who she is working to become. I can sincerely say that I love myself. Thank you God.  Thank you because this love has been the most important key in my success so far. I consider this ability, to love myself, my greatest accomplishment and blessing in my life thus far.

Did it ever occur to you that you have a relationship with yourself? While I've never given it much thought, I spend more time with myself than with anyone, and it's vital to get along well with me. Remember, you are the one person you never get away from. 

If you have been following my blog you know that I had become pretty good at negative cuts, belittling words and hurtful comments about me. I won’t go into where all the negatives finally led me. I have already shared that story in an earlier post. Please reread the post titled “If it’s not worthy of saying out loud then it is probably not worth saying to yourself” along with the scary experience it took to wake me up, if you don’t remember.

I had set a goal to write in my blog once a week but just recently a beautiful and wonderful woman, in tears, came to me for help. So I told her that this post is for her. Thank you for reaching out to me because I needed you too. 

You need to know that I cried after I read her email for her AND then for me.  AND then wrote her back, scared to death I would say the wrong thing, because, I have no answers…Just a path…the one I am using.   

Early on, in this butterfly quest I was blessed with a unique and special experience that led to a divine intervention. As all spiritual and divine experiences go they are personal and always lose some of their luster and glory in the sharing. That being said, I will try to put into words a wonderful change that came over my heart and soul. I am not suggesting that you should seek a divine intervention, but I believe one is available for you, if you need it.

Here’s the story…….

I had started emailing an old friend, from years gone way by; at about the same time I started my butterfly quest. You should know, this once was a young man I loved and still have special feelings for. He was and still is very special to me. We started out emailing each other just catching up and learning about how our lives had gone since we last talked some 45 years ago. It was fun, distracting and completely innocent, just two old friends, who had found each other again after a whole life time. One day in a short but very sweet email he told me he still loved me just as he had told me he did some 45 years earlier.  I sat with my mouth open for several minutes just staring at the words on the page,  “I still love you”….This cannot be…l am not worth loving…..was my only thought.

Well the rest of the story and the part that changed my life forever go like this…. It was the memory of this love, though now just a flicker from years long past that sparked a much needed self-examination and search for who I was and where I had gone. What happened to that young girl that he felt was worth loving?  Unbeknown to him, until today if he is reading this, these sweet words became the spark that God used to light a fire in me.

Over the next weeks that pasted I truly searched my soul as I had never done before. Where was the young girl I used to be? What happened to her dreams, my god, what happened to her heart, to the stars in her eyes? What happened to the girl that he had fallen in love with? The one I loved and respected? This haunted me day and night. It ate at me and stayed on my mind continually, until finally I started to pray. I prayed and pleaded very hard to know her again. I felt she had died and feared she was gone forever. So from the spark he started, a fire began to burn in my heart. It burned to find her, to love her, to put my arms around her and tell her I was so sorry. Sorry for the years I had put her last. Sorry for all the hurtful things I had said and done to her. Sorry I had let her down and in so doing, let everyone I had ever loved down. I never share this story or ever think about it without crying. Thank God that every time I think about it the tears come. I thank God for the tears flowing down my cheeks right now for they remind me that this was a divine intervention.  This was God, reaching down to me, through this old friend, in an attempt to save my life.

Months have passed since I Have found her. I am happy to report that although she was weak when I found her, she is now very much alive again and growing stronger every day. We, (she and I) are so grateful to this old friend and to God for a chance at a happy life again.

We should love ourselves—not in a selfish, self-centered way that produces a lifestyle of self-indulgence, but in a balanced, godly way that affirms God's creation as essentially good and right. We may be flawed by unfortunate experiences we've gone through, but that doesn't mean we're worthless and good-for-nothing

The important message here, if you didn’t catch it, is Self Esteem. Please stop the negative talk. Find every good and worthy thing about yourself right now that you can remember and just begin again to love and respect you, a beautiful and amazing child of God. If you are having a hard time doing this then Pray. And then Pray some more.

I cannot stress enough that; the first step is self-esteem. The first step is loving you, for in loving yourself all of your problems will become lighter. Be as gentle and loving to yourself as you would to your own child. If your child came to you with a problem what would you say and do to help that child? Don’t know? Find out now! It is extremely important to your health and happiness. Use my path if you need too for a while. But I have no doubt that you will eventually find your own, for God loves you just as he loves me.

A side note…….In case my old friend happens to read this by some slight chance….I hope you know I love you for a list of reasons…… and it seems that now I have to add  gratitude to that list.

We must have the kind of love for ourselves that says, "I know God loves me, so I can love what God chooses to love. I don't love everything I do, but I accept myself because God accepts me." We must develop the kind of mature love that says, "I know I need to change, and I want to change. In fact, I believe God is changing me daily, but during this process, I will not reject what God accepts. I'll accept myself as I am right now, knowing that I will not always remain this way." 

Many times people who reject themselves do so because they can't see themselves as good, proper, or right. They fail to see themselves the way God sees them—as precious children He dearly loves. 

As you begin to see yourself through God's eyes—someone who's loved and cherished—your view of yourself will begin to change. You'll begin to see yourself not as rejected, but as loved and accepted…unique and beautiful in His sight