Ok. I missed it!
Shoot! I saw it coming, and then let it pass.
I thought about writing a post about failure, but I've already written on how I'm a Brat,
and on me being Not the Perfect Mom.
So, I blog post entitled "I'm a Failure" just seems a little much.
But, I was supposed to post on Thursday. Shoot.
But but but….
I'm working on my Perfectionism, and so I'm letting that go, and accepting it for what it was. A mistake. And I'm not perfect and that's ok.
Last night reading through some other "Mom blogs" I came across a Mom who wrote down 5 things she would tell herself as a child. I'm sorry I don't remember the blog or I would link to it here.
But that hit home.
What would I tell myself? What would the almost-40 me tell the childhood/teenage me?
Here's my personal list:
1. You are AWESOME!
2. You do NOT need a boy to like you to feel self-worth. See #1.
3. It's very okay, even GOOD, to have your own opinion. See #1.
4. You do NOT need your parents approval to feel self-worth. They are good people but you are not their carbon copy…and that's okay. See #1.
5. God LOVES YOU just the way you are. See #1.
6. God does NOT expect perfection from you (even though He made you quite awesome…fearfully and wonderfully made).
7. God is not sitting around waiting to be disappointed by you. See #1, #5, and #6.
8. Yes, it's important to strive to be better, but all the while knowing that just being YOU is enough. See #1.
9. Learn from the past, look forward with hopeful expectation to the future, but enjoy NOW.
10. You're cute. See #1.
11. You're not fat. See #1.
12. You're not lazy nor blind. See #1.
13. I love you.
I can't tell you how freeing this list was to me last night. A reminder to love myself. Yes, I need to die to myself, but at the same time, I can't love others if I don't love myself. Even though some days I feel not so worthy of my own love.
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
I just looked that up on Biblegateway.com and TEN different references came up. It's in the Old and New Testament. That many places we are told to love others as ourselves.
Kids take a lot of energy. A lot of stamina. And a lot of love.
What are you doing to love yourself today? What would you tell your childhood self?
