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Friday, October 3, 2014

31 Day Writing Challenge


It is difficult to go anywhere in our town without seeing little green stickers with the words "Be Kind". This is the result of a local charity, Ben's Bells. Of course, the point is for people to be kind to each other--an endeavor that I support. However, I would like to submit that if we are not first kind to ourselves, we will not have much kindness to give to others.

A search at BlueLetterBible.com revealed that the phrase "Love thy neighbour as thyself," (KJV) or "Love your neighbor as yourself," (NIV & ESV) occurs nine times. To me that says that we have to care about ourselves, show love to ourselves, in order to be able to love others--our neighbors and friends.

I am learning how to do this. For most of my life, I have not given myself permission to be kind to myself. I felt it was wrong--in the vein of being selfish and therefore sinning.

Please do not hear me wrong, I am not saying we should go crazy here, but we need to give ourselves permission to accept from ourselves kindness. Yes, we take care of ourselves; we buy stuff for ourselves, but most of the time, I do that with a measure of guilt. I might give myself permission to do something just because I want to do it, but there is always that nagging guilt voice in my head telling myself I have no business spending this time on myself. Buyer's remorse is my constant companion if I should decide to make a purchase for the simple reason that I want the item.

I am working on correcting this behavior. I am working on giving myself permission to accept my own kindnesses to myself. What have I gained? I am happier. I am nicer to others. I am more accepting of others and their weaknesses. I am able to accept kindness given to me from other people.

So, for the next 31 days, I am going to try to do something for myself each day. Maybe it will be working on a crafty project. Maybe it will be doing something with purpose for my health. I do not know exactly what will come up. I have a list to work on, but I am going to be kind enough to myself to allow myself to stray from the list without admonition.

This post is my official Day 1 as I am starting three days behind the average bear 31 Day Writer participant.

1) Make a blog button and write a post introducing my 31 day writing topic. (You're here!)

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There are a bunch of other people on 31 day journeys of their own. You can find them at Write31Days.com. Just a bunch of bloggers happy to have our own personal cause to write and share about.