Before you can teach others to respect you, you first have to respect yourself. This is the key to living the abundant life God desires for you. But when you’ve been through a lot of difficult circumstances, especially when others have devalued you, it’s tough to change your self-image.
But it’s not impossible. You can break free of limiting thoughts and beliefs, but you know what you have to do? You have to cleanse your environment. Rid yourself of negative influences. Think about it. It’s impossible to change your reality without shifting your mentality. What’s more, you can never begin altering your perception, until you get rid of the negative people and things that are crowding your space.
We often sabotage ourselves by engaging in counterproductive relationships and activities. We do. We really work against ourselves by allowing folks to be attached to us that don’t mean us any good. These self-destructive behaviors and habitual tendencies hurt our progress.
Listen to me. Never get so desperate for what I call “The Triple A”: Attention, Affirmation, and Acknowledgment, that you’re willing to settle for anything and anybody. Don’t get so desperate for love that you end up settling for lust.
Come on and let me help you now. There are some people that you wouldn’t even give the time of day, if you truly knew how special and wonderful you are. But after you’ve experienced so much rejection, loneliness, pain, and in some cases, abuse; you stop believing that you can have anything better. So what happens? You latch onto the first thing that comes along, and time after time, you end up hurt.
Please understand, you can’t keep hanging around individuals who don’t see your potential or your value, and expect for your self-esteem to be bolstered. Ah-ah-ah . . . it doesn’t work that way. Instead, you need to spend time away. Get alone in God’s presence. You’ve got to stop being afraid of being alone. After all, there’s a big difference between being alone and being lonely.
Until you stop mistaking one for the other, you’ll allow anybody to be in your life just to keep you company. And everyone is not worthy of your time. I don’t know who I’m talking to, but hear me today. God wants you to get the most out of life. He has invested too much in you for you to squander it in bad relationships.
He wants you to begin seeing yourself through His eyes. But before that can happen, you’ve got to spend more time with Him. Let Him love you like you need to be loved. Let Him redefine your perception of yourself. Most of all let Him show you what REAL LOVE feels like, so you’ll never ever be fooled by a counterfeit again.
I know it can be tough to navigate your way through relationships and other life experiences. But always remember, you’re not by yourself. But you’ve got to get other folks out of your ear so you can hear God clearly.
He’s speaking to you right now. Please, heed His voice. He loves you so much . . . much, much more than you could ever imagine.
Until next time . . . may you be empowered to prosper!
Dianna Hobbs