Help yourself!

"This amazing life-changing advice applies to a specific person I'm thinking about!" *with no thought of personal application whatsoever*

If you've read some of my posts from the past, you'll see how I reflect on how easy it is to get wrapped up in being busy and forget to think about yourself. HOWEVER! This post is going to be from a little different perspective; forgetting to think about yourself not in a busy sense, but in a knowledge sense.

Bear with me for the next paragraph... I get to the point at the end of it!!!

While we are called to focus on other people (Paul says this in Philippians 2:3 -- "Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves."), don't let that consume your everyday to the point of neglecting yourself. And I'm talking mentally/emotionally/spiritually. My examples today are not going to come from doing things for others, but neglecting to help yourself because you're trying to correct people all the time. Trying to help others in your mind (sometimes without even reaching out) and failing to think about the help being applied to you. Let me explain what this means.

When I listen to sermons, I have a hard time connecting it to my own life most of the time. I'm often thinking "WOW! This would really help [this person] grow in [this area]!" I'm thinking "I WISH [this person] was in service right now to hear this!!! They really need to change their thinking in [this]!" And essentially "I'm way better at doing [that] 'correctly' compared to [him/her]." This applies to other things too, aside from sermons. Maybe self help books. A podcast. An article offering a different perspective on things. I feel like so many people will read or listen to something and automatically think of someone else who could use it more than them. While accountability is great and sometimes the Holy Spirit does have you send little blurbs to a close friend or relative to help them through a situation, oftentimes I think that this can also be a tactic used by the enemy in order to stunt our growth in that area because we don't even consider ourselves as a viable option. In all reality, pride can get in the way of applying different topics to certain issues you may have faced in the past or will face in the future.

Sometimes, applying solutions to other people's problems may be a defense mechanism. Maybe we want to see ourselves as more put together than how we actually are, and we can almost "cast blame" in a sense to someone else so that we can't consider ourselves as in need of growth. Let's face it, it's not fun to be "weak," it's not fun to "miss the mark," and it's not fun to need to work on stuff. That requires effort! Something that doesn't require effort and can come off as being "helpful" is making sure someone else listens to a sermon so that you've done your part. Alright, I just gave them some really helpful advice through a third party! Listening to that sermon paid off! Wellllllllllll....maybe try to apply it to yourself, too.

I am very guilty of this. I know others who are as well. Like I said, there are ABSOLUTELY times when sharing a thought that you've heard or read can be a seed someone needs; maybe even change someone's whole situation around. Just

Don't

Forget

To

Help

YOURSELF.

As a two on the enneagram (super fun and helpful tool you can use to see how you're programmed and learn how to become healthy in that area and allow God to use specific gifts in you and I could go on and on but there's a gist of what that is), I OFTEN apply things to other people instead of myself. I have plenty of areas to grow. I have left many sermons unapplied because I mentally applied it to someone else. This is a reminder to think about yourself sometimes. Paul was right about not being selfish, but don't forget that you can't fix everyone and some people haven't asked for help or aren't close enough to you to want your help. (And if they're just what you're thinking about the whole time and you don't even reach out, that's a waste too.) Wait for the Holy Spirit to share convicting things with people. Sometimes you may just walk away without a personal takeaway because you were mentally trying to push it onto someone else. Don't exclude yourself from growth opportunities.