The One Thing God Wants From You

So to begin:

Your heart matters most to God. Your heart needs protecting.

You need to be nice to it.

We can be so mean to ourselves, can’t we? We say things to ourselves that we would never say to another human being. We can be harsh. (We see our flaws clearly, but it’s much more difficult to see our goodness, right?) Here’s the thing: You need to be kind to yourself so that you will be kind to others. Because the way you treat your heart is the way you will treat everyone else’s. That’s how it works.

I recently had the honor and the sorrow (yes, at the same time) of being at the memorial service for my friend’s 24-year-old son.

The service was holy. And I do mean h.o.l.y. Grieving his passing. Celebrating his life. Thanking God for the truth that there is a day coming when all will be restored. No more good-byes. Ever.

At his service, nothing was shared about how he did or did not pick up his room. If he made his bed. Put his clothes away. Nothing about how old he was when he got his driver’s license. Not a word about his grades, his roles or his titles.

Tons were shared about how people felt in his presence. There were lots of stories about his sense of humor. Words flowed about how he loved people, how he lived passionately from his heart and the joy he brought by being and offering his unique, quirky, imperfect, wonderful, on-the-road self.

It was his heart that mattered. And it’s yours that matters.

So how are you doing today? How’s your heart? How are you treating your heart? Are you being kind? Encouraging? Loving? To yourself? Jesus wants you to be. We are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. The thing is, we will. We will love others as we love ourselves. So if we are harsh to ourselves, we will be harsh to others whether we want to be or not. It will leak out.

Jesus loves you. He thinks you’re worth protecting, pursuing, guarding, investing in and giving his life for. He wants you to love you too, even while being keenly aware of areas in your life that you want to change.

Take a moment now and thank God for your life. Ask for his help to love yourself.

© 2014 Stasi Eldredge. Free to Be Me is published by David C Cook. All rights reserved.