Episode 13: Loving Yourself Helps Life Thrive

Hello friends, and welcome to a podcast dedicated to your personal growth journey alongside my personal insights. Ever wondered about how important you are? This episode explores how simple loving yourself just as much as you love God can be used to elevate your life forward. Enhancing your self respect motivation to move forward. It's a quick look at how we can better understand our relationships and foster personal growth through visual storytelling.

Transcript

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Let me ask you something, and you gotta trust me on this one. It might seem a little strange, but please do me a favor. Bring out your hand. Notice how it has five fingers, right? Now I want you to picture this hand, or it could be your your left hand, um, any any hand, really. And I want you to think of this hand as your circle of trust. Now, who are the five people you love the most? Who do you consider worthy of being in this circle of trust? Now, if you need to pause the video or audio, you totally can. But yes, I want you to stop what you're doing and think. Five people go. Okay, now I'm pretty sure that of the five people, you're probably thinking, oh my gosh, yes. I'm thinking my mom, my dad, my grandpa, my brother, my spouse, or my partner. Well, my dear viewer, notice how you forgot the most important person in your life. Yeah, that's right. You. You forgot yourself. Interesting, isn't it? Now, I bet you're wondering, Peter, why do I have to label myself if you clearly asked for the five most important people in my circle of trust? Well, my dear viewer, these are five people you trust the most. Chances are it's your parents, chances are it's your spouse, chances are it's your grandparents, your brothers, your best friend. Well, where are you in that circle? Where the heck are you? What? Do you think you have a sixth finger and you're gonna just teleport there and add yourself into the roster? No. You are important, you are valued, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Most of the time we forget to put ourselves in the equation. Most of the time we think, oh man, why do I matter? Am I really that important to people? What is the point of myself? Well, let's dive right in. Hello and welcome back to Wisdom Encounters over Coffee, the show where we talk about the complications of a face journey and how you can improve today to make your tomorrow a little better. My name is Peter, your friendly neighborhood botonic spider. Yeah, that's right. I decided to reveal my face to the whole world, and now you guys get to see my face as well. So, yeah, win-win, right? Welcome to the episode where we talk about self-love and why it's important. Also, I want you guys to cut me some slack because this is the first time where I'm making a full episode, or at least most of the full episode, we'll see what happens at the editing floor with my face. Now, I do want you guys to bear with me. I'm gonna keep on improving step by step. But yeah, if you like what you see here, don't forget to like, subscribe, and comment down below how important are you to this world? Well, let's dive right in, shall we? So, to get an idea as to who we are, regardless of our upbringings and why we are important, we are going to pull out our Bibles and read together, shall we? I'm going to read all of Psalms 139. So definitely meditate as I read through this because it's going to come in handy, and we're gonna be discussing a little bit more as we go on. I'm gonna be reading off my iPad, alright? But if you have a physical Bible, then good for you. Alright? Let's dive in. Okay. Oh Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts, even when I'm far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I'm going to say, even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand. I can never escape from your spirit. I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me, and the light around me to become night, but even in the darkness, I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. You made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's wound. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous. How well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book, every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered. I can't even count them. They outnumber the grains of sand, and when I wake up, you are still with me. Oh God, if only you would destroy the wicked. Get out of my life, you murderers. They blaspheme you. Your enemies misuse your name. Oh Lord, shouldn't I hate those who hate you? Shouldn't I despise those who oppose you? Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me, and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Wow. My dear viewers slash listeners, notice how we have such a merciful God who gave us so much. He gave each and every one of us a name, a title, an identity, a purpose. But how can we reach that purpose if we don't know who the heck we are? If we don't even know who to trust, if we don't trust ourselves, if we think we're the worst thing ever, if we underappreciate our values, our sentiment, our thoughts, our minds, how the heck are we ever gonna move forward from anything? Right? You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You shouldn't doubt yourself. Why did you forget to put yourself in the equation of the trust circle? It's okay. That's pretty much a normal answer. Especially if you're a perfectionist, an unbeliever. Or even if you're a believer, you think, why am I that important? What what what is my value? What is my purpose? What am I doing in this life? You know, you're not supposed to think like that anymore. Because you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You have a purpose, you have potential, you were born for great things. Why ignore our worth and our values just to fit in? Just to be popular? Why sacrifice our worth and our identity just to fit in? I mean, what are you doing with yourself? Why would you want to sacrifice all that makes you beautiful? All that makes you holy just to fit in? Why do you want to fit in? Why do you want to be popular? Why sacrifice the Lord's image for you just to fit into society? Just to be popular. Look, I don't care if I'm popular. I mean, I never fit in. As I said in my testimony video, I was always seen as the black sheep, the unpopular person, the unloved person. I was a nerd. I never fit in. I was in a school full of jocks, bullies, just stuck up women, stuck up guys. I wasn't popular. And because I wasn't popular, I got to live the life I wanted. I got to live the childhood I wanted because I had a loving family. And yes, I made some friends along the way, but you know, I understand that not many people have that. But from the get-go, I was like, why do I need to sacrifice all that I love just to be loved? You know? It's like God from there, He kept on saying, You are fearfully and wonderfully made. And I didn't even know him yet. I didn't even know him yet until my mid-twenties. You know? It's interesting. Now, here's the thing, folks: society will hate everything they don't understand. But to God, that doesn't matter. Because he shaped us, he molded us from the inside of our mother's womb. He knew our story. He knew our faults. He knew how much we were gonna struggle, how much we were gonna fail, but he knew everything way before we did. He gave us life, he gave us purpose. And I don't think your purpose was to be popular, and your purpose was to fit in. If that's going to be the way to sacrifice who you are and the person God made you to be. Life often gives us rules and guidelines we must follow. Like an invisible scroll that usually tells us to dress a certain way, to act a certain way, to talk a certain way, just to please others, just to let a part of ourselves die. Nothing else, nothing more, nothing less. Who are you trying to please? Are you trying to please the whole world or are you trying to please God? You know, let's look back at a couple of verses because I need you to really think about this, okay? Notice how in verses 13 through 16 it says, You made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's wound. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your worksmanship is marvelous. How well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in the utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. You have a purpose, you have an identity. How can you get to your story if you don't love yourself? If you don't please yourself, if you try the very best to please the world around you, and you know what? Men are gonna disappoint you, women are gonna disappoint you, your whole family is going to disappoint you. But you know who will never disappoint you? God be strong and courageous, have faith in him, listen to his word, be faithful, be humble, my dear friends. You were not meant to die. You were not meant to live a life to please others, you were not meant to live by society's rules and be someone the world wants. No, you gotta love yourself just as much as you love God, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and of a sound mind. Be strong and courageous. Don't let society dictate who you are. Don't let them think because society wants us to be drinkers, they want us to be alcoholic, they want us to be vapors, they want us to be party freaks. They don't want us to be the us that God decided for us to be. They want us to adapt, to live by the rules. Do you want a part of yourself to live or do you want it to die? Now, here here's the other thing, though. Here's the contrast. Don't be comfortable, you know? Sure, I'm not telling you to rebel, I'm not telling you to be disobedient, I'm not telling you to not follow rules, but I'm just telling you to know who you are, love yourself, love yourself for who you are and who you will become. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. He's going to make sure everything works out for you. I can't, the world can't, your family can't. You gotta make the decision to get up and rise, take risks, make decisions, be bold, fearless. How can you ever reach any of that if all you do is please others? Right? Why would you? Don't do that. To end this session, I just wanted to take a moment. Again, I want you to bring back those five fingers. Where would you put yourself? Would you put yourself as the pointer, the most important finger, or would you put yourself as the pinky, like the the small? Where are you in this circle of trust? How important are you to your own heart, to your own mind, to your own life? How important are you? Where are you gonna put yourself in the equation? So let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Let us be glad to rejoice in it. Thank you, God, for giving me the strength and the courage to just make this first podcast episode where I actually show my face. I know it's it's kind of tricky, and I know I probably messed up a couple of times, but I just ask you, Lord, to help me to keep improving, to keep on growing, but at the same time, help my viewers to be bold and courageous, to love themselves, to understand they are fearfully and wonderfully made. For you have not given them a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and of a sound mind. Remove any anxiety and remove any stress that they may be facing, Lord. And please, God, please help them to love themselves, help them to understand who they are and what their meaning is to the world. Thank you, Jesus. In your name we pray. Amen. Well, thank you so much for um listening and watching to a new kind of format for Wisdom Encounters over Coffee. I will be trying to do this more often. And if you liked what you heard, or watched in this case, be sure to leave a like, subscribe, and comment down below. I'm going to keep on improving, you know? This is a growth journey. I'm growing, you're growing, and sooner or later, we will become better than we were yesterday. Alright, well, thank you so much for watching. God bless and have a wonderful day.