On This, My Birthday… Deep Thoughts and Promises to Myself

Thank you, Lord, for Your love and mercy that bring me to another day that indelibly marks Your blessing on my life. I receive it. Thank You for the broken chains that I see in the ashes around me, because of Your great love and kindness. You know before I even know what my life needs.

Read Philippians 1:9–10 in The Message.

Mmmm… "bountiful in fruits from the soul". Deep thoughts.

You cannot be satisfied with loving others until you are satisfied with loving yourself; who you are, and happy/satisfied with that. We're oftentimes self-loathing because we have let ourselves down in some form or another. We have a mental picture of how we want ourselves to look and be.

Then we have those momentary glimpses of who we really have become, sometimes in character and sometimes in physique. We realize that we have let ourselves go, allowed ourselves to "give in" even though we know what's good for us. And we become depressed and hopeless, thinking we have no control over it.

That feeling of dissatisfaction bleeds onto others… And sometimes it's not pretty.

The thing is: WE DO HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE IT. All it takes is the realization of that, and a strong resolve to love yourself enough to hold to your wisdom; the self-control you know you need to commit to, that will give you "the fruits of the soul" that you long for in yourself.

Establish what is appropriate, sincere and intelligent; make the decision to live like that in public AND in private. Simple as that! (If someone spoke to us like we often speak to ourselves, we would avoid them at all costs.) So take yourself in hand, and turn the negatives into positives… Be true to yourself.

I resolve to live my life circumspectly (deliberate and guarded) and exemplary (admirable, blameless, with character, honorable); a life Jesus will be proud of.

My heart cry is that my children KNOW YOU IN THIS WAY.

I am worthy of the best, worthy of being satisfied that I do have personal integrity – that when I "catch a glimpse of myself", I am satisfied that I've been true to myself.

This deep moment was inspired by…

1. The instructors in Bikram Yoga, who often say: "Be honest with yourself, you're the only one who will know."
2. Orrin Woodward on an LLR CD. In explaining personal integrity, he said, "Fitness is a byproduct of personal integrity." I have claimed that as my life's mantra… Success, in everything, is a byproduct of personal integrity!
3. The words that are spoken of me when I get up to speak in a meeting.
4. My Lord, who loves me unconditionally. There's nothing I can do to make Him love me more. There's nothing I can do to make Him love me less.