by Diana Ramirez

Dear friend,

The past blogs have been talking about the process of healing and how God is going to take your ashes and make beauty from it. One of the things I came to realize while going through this is that one of the most important things you will have to do is come to love yourself and take time for yourself. Many times we think caring for ourselves or taking time for ourselves is selfish. We feel we have to always be going at breakneck speed and helping everyone else out. That is not true.

Yes, we can help others but helping and loving yourself is the most important thing for you. Many of us love others and will do anything for someone at all times. The problem is we don’t love ourselves. We have a distorted image of who we are or what we deserve. That can come from the way we grew up and how we were treated or even from dating or marrying someone who at the end broke you. After that you seem to think you aren’t worth much or that you don’t deserve everything you desire. That is a lie from the enemy.

In the Bible, it says God will give us the desires of our hearts as they are aligned to His purpose in our lives. To be honest you really can’t love to your full capacity if you don’t love yourself first. Not loving yourself and seeing who you truly are through God’s eyes will have you settling for less. That means settling for less in every area of your life – relationships, jobs, God’s calling, our gifts, ministry. We don’t step out to receive all God has for us because we settle with the measly crumbs thinking that is all we deserve. No matter what you have done or what has been done to you, God will forgive and His plan is greater than anything we can imagine. When we love someone we give them all we can and do all we can for them, right? Now what makes you think that our Father in Heaven is any different? He loves us with no regards and no boundaries.

You have to take time for yourself and come to God to let Him love you and mend every area that may be broken or damaged. When I first started this process of healing I was always trying to do something for someone and never having time alone. I attracted someone who was just like my ex and gave him my all. The emotional and verbal abuse from this relationship was horrible, worse than my marriage. I kept on trying to make it work and was giving all of me and all it did was break me to where I thought that I didn’t deserve anything better.

One night, God called out to me and told me He wanted me to Himself. He told me to end the relationship and work on myself. It was a slow process because I had never been brought up caring about myself or taking time to make me happy. Now making yourself happy isn’t going out and partying or putting yourself in debt. It is just realizing what quiets your soul and how you don’t have that war inside of you. That for me came in just taking walks and taking a day here and there to rest. Not being involved in everything and being able to say no to things even if someone got upset. It was weird for me at first but little by little I came to realize just how that quieted my soul and made me feel so peaceful.

During this process I also learned that having boundaries and letting God love me was so adequate to everyday life. See at first it was so hard for me to let God love me. I had this vision and the words of my exes always running through my mind. It took a lot of patience and just sitting in with the Lord for me to get to the place I am at. I started realizing how I had been settling for so much less because of the distorted vision I had of myself. I hadn’t been following my dreams and even though I had been giving a lot to others, I wasn’t letting myself be refreshed and refilled.

See when we are hurt and just give and give eventually we run out of what we have to offer or run on fumes. That means we aren’t able to give out 100% of what we have to offer. It’s like trying to water a plant with a watering can that has a hole in it. You will be able to water it but not for long due to it having a hole in it. That is how we are when we don’t let God come in and heal us and show us how to love ourselves.

Letting God work in me and taking the time for myself made me a better mother, sister, daughter and friend. I had been pouring out what I could give but it wasn’t my full potential. Taking a step back and not always going at breakneck speed has helped me to be more calm and just enjoy the moments more. Realizing that I don’t have to say yes to everything and that it was ok to love myself has been one of the greatest gifts I have received from all this. I now am able to love myself and see myself through Gods eyes. I am not worried about people’s opinions about me and I have grown more as a person and am not scared or think I am not good enough to follow my dreams.

Like I said before I will tell my story to help even if it is just one person. Dear friend, slow down to let God love you and speak to you. You taking time for yourself or taking yourself out of situations you know isn’t the best for you is not you being selfish. No matter what others try to tell you, you have to start the healing process with. It starts with letting Him love you and in the process you learn to love yourself. Loving yourself will bring you a whole new freedom you didn’t even know existed.

Remember you are loved and you are a treasure. You deserve more than anything you might be settling for no matter what you have done. Lay it all aside and come to Him, it will be the best thing you have ever done for yourself and the ones you love. You will be able to actually love with all you have knowing that you aren’t broken and can love them the way our Father loves you. It will be scary or may even hurt to let go of some things at first, but trust me it will be the best thing you have ever done. You will feel a weight lifted off and in the process gain so much.

So, don’t wait to leave that thing or things God has told you to release. In the process you will gain so much more and find your true identity through it all. Take that leap of faith and let Him love you. You are in my thoughts and prayers daily. You are more than a conqueror and are worth so much, don’t you forget that.

Much love,

The Christian Blogger

What are you holding onto or saying yes to that God is asking you to release? Stop and take a minute and ask yourself: Do you truly love yourself and see yourself the way God does? Are you broken or are you whole? If you are broken what is keeping you from starting the process of healing? If you need prayer or have a question or thought please feel free to comment below.

Also, if you haven’t read my other blogs on this subject click on the link below and head over to read them: https://power77radio.com/2019/05/02/inspiration-beautiful-mess/.

Be sure to visit my website, too: https://christianblogger17.wixsite.com/mysite.