Love yourself to improve the world

Elder Uchtdorf recommends 5 steps to share the Gospel with the world:

  1. Draw close to God.
  2. Fill your heart with love for others.
  3. Strive to walk the path of discipleship.
  4. Share what is in your heart.
  5. Trust the Lord to work His miracles.

Two things struck me during our lesson today in reference to this topic:

  1. Several times, the discussion leader and others in the audience said, “missionary work is hard.” My thought was, “Missionary work is hard if you think it is hard.” What if missionary work is actually really easy?

    What if believing something is difficult is what makes it difficult? We can apply this to anything in our lives. If we believe sex is difficult, then our brains will find all the evidence that it is difficult. When we work on believing sex is easy, we will find evidence for that as well.
  2. It is difficult to fill our hearts with love for others when we don’t have love for ourselves. Loving ourselves always comes first. Our brain doesn’t compartmentalize our lives. The same “muscles” we use to love ourselves are what we need to develop in order to love others.

    A lack of loving ourselves is something I see often in my coaching. I am seeing more and more how a lack of love is truly at the root of all our problems.
Loving one another includes loving yourself.
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

So my Sabbath message to you tonight is to work on loving yourself. You are 100% lovable and worthy. Believe that it’s true and it will come true.

Roughly 2.5 years ago I found these life coaching ideas. The past few days I have allowed myself to spend some time filling up in gratitude for all the personal progress I have made on myself, and the opportunity I have to share with others. I love myself so much more than when I started out. I believe that I am enough. I know that nothing I do can prove my value, so everything I do is because I want to- because I want to share the goodness that has come into my life. In a blessing I received years ago I was told that I would be successful in my work and my career. To me, success means serving others and improving their lives. I can’t wait for that to come true!

I love the Gospel I live. I love Jesus Christ who is my Savior. I KNOW he lives. I am so grateful for my family and this amazing dream life I am living. I have been blessed beyond what I deserve. Every day I am trying to be an example of happiness and joy so that others will feel moved to do the same. Because anything is possible!