Becoming your “Best Self”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Matthew 22:37-39

So these days a lot of self help and social media talks about becoming your “best self.” For me I’ve taken that saying on and ran with it! There were times in the past few years that I was working out everyday, eating my healthiest, and doing everything on my to-do list so that I could feel my “best.” Yet, I still had and have a lot to grow on. God has shown me throughout these past few years that becoming your “best self” has little to do with how much you weigh, what your income looks like, or what you can get done. Nope. That’s what social media tells us… (at least the accounts I follow). Becoming your “best self” has to do more with how you feel on the inside. Do you feel confident? Happy? Healthy? If so, what are those things that make you feel confident, happy, or healthy? For me what I’ve truly realized is that I could feel horrible, and still be my “best self” for that time. I could look terrible in the mirror, and maybe that’s my best self for that day. I could be healing through something deep and traumatic, and yes that’s also my “best self.” We’re not meant to be perfect, we’re human. We all have flaws and don’t feel great everyday. We can post our happy selfies and make others think that we don’t experience pain, hardship, or fear, but we do. We all do. God has helped me realize that being my best self has little to do with what people perceive me as, or even what I perceive myself as, but it has more to do with what’s in your heart. Now I ask you to ask yourself, what’s in your heart? It’s okay if you’re not where you want to be, just be honest with God with where you are and He can work with that. Like Jesus says in this scripture the greatest commandment is to “Love God with all your heart” and the second is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I’m not going to say do this and everything will work out! It’s hard to love people when you don’t feel treated right, or feel rejected, or someone has done something terrible to you, I feel that! However, what God sees as us being our “best self” means looking past all that and loving others the way He would want us to. I do believe that God is okay with boundaries though just for the record. 🙂 And loving God can seem easier, but sometimes we can be distracted by the wrong things or we can struggle to trust God for whatever reason, but I believe Jesus says this for a reason, when we’re more focused on God we can actually be more loving and kind to others and as as a result become your “Best Self.”

Hope you all have a very blessed week ahead of you.