Sunday, March 3, 2013

Do we BULLY ourselves?

Lately in the news there is so much discussion of bullies. The thought came to me one early morning when I couldn't sleep...do we bully ourselves? By allowing and encouraging negative thoughts/voices in our mind, I believe we are doing this. We would never say outloud the criticisms of ourself that slip into our everyday thinking. Our friends would be few and far between if we treated others as we treat ourself sometimes.


ENIGMA

Why does she put herself down
criticism for past actions and faults
long repented of and forsaken
in God’s eyes? Unearthing them again
and again to re-experience the despair
when she easily as a master teacher
builds and encourages struggling others.

It’s the opposition in all things, the ying
yang of life that drains our strength as
we try to press forward ever onward
with perfection as our goal, but shortcomings
as our guides. Only faith and forgiveness
of self will see us through to the goal
and love of our Heavenly Parent on high.

Can we bully ourselves? YES!

5 comments:

  1. Lin,
    I think we pound the heck out of ourselves. It would be interesting to go through a day intentionally noting every time a self-directed mean thought came up. Sometimes I think we need to love ourselves as we love our neighbor because it seems so much easier to forgive the other guy than to forgive ourselves.

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  2. I think it's very true that sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. Thank you for the reminder that we need to be kinder to ourselves and uplift ourselves.

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  3. Interesting thought. I don't think it is bullying exactly because we do not have control of those recurring thoughts that invade our mind. I would love to find a way to block them.

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  4. I always called it "beating myself up". I'm better than I used to be, but then my life is much less complex than when I was still working.

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  5. great post. i just shared this with a friend of mine who is a RS president but does bully herself so needlessly. She's amazing and so capable. Thanx.

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