All of us have people that we just try to avoid being around for various reasons. When we see them coming we try to find an alternate route to keep from having to deal with them. The one person we can not avoid seeing and being with daily is yourself. The one relationship we can not hide from is the relationship with ourselves. It is vital that you have a clear conscious toward yourself because there is no getting away from you. Sound silly? Think about this, you know more about yourself than you know about anyone else. You are more disappointed with yourself sometimes than you are with anyone else. You know your thoughts more than you know anyone else’s. See how important it is for us to love yourself, your life, and your purpose in life? We should love ourselves, not in a selfish, self-centered way that produces a lifestyle of self-indulgence, but in a balanced, godly way that affirms God’s creation as essentially good and right. No one is perfect, and we may be flawed by unfortunate experiences we’ve gone through, but that doesn’t mean we’re worthless and good-for-nothing. God has forgiven and forgotten those flaws in our lives. (Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.) We must have the kind of love for ourselves that says, “I know God loves me, so I can love what God chooses to love. I don’t love everything I do, but I accept myself because God accepts me.” We must develop the kind of mature love that says, “I believe God is changing me daily, but during this process, I will not reject what God accepts. I’ll accept myself as I am right now, knowing I will not always remain this way.” Pastor Don [image: image.png]