Take Care

It's a phrase that many of us have said or had someone say to us at the end of conversations, text messages and emails. So, I started thinking recently about what it really means to take care. In taking care of ourselves, we need to take care of our whole self. This is something we need to work on daily. We need to strive to do the best we can to take care of our physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health. We should want to be healthy in all areas of our lives. For our physical health, we need to eat healthy foods, drink plenty of water, rest and exercise. We should be getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night (most of us fall short here- I know I do!). We know when we are physically tired and need our rest. When we're tired, we can't give our best in what we do. In those moments, it's okay to take a break. We need to have checkups with doctors and dentists to help make sure we are on track and get ways to help us do so. In looking at our mental health, our minds need to be taken care of. Our minds are subject to have so many different thoughts in it in a given day. Now, we can't always control what thoughts come in our mind. However, we have to learn to choose what thoughts we let stay and which ones we let go. We can choose the thoughts we accept and the ones we reject. Accept the thoughts that say we're beautiful/handsome, special, loved, cared about, important, needed, and our lives matter. Reject the thoughts that say we're not going to be anything, no one cares, we're not loved, not needed, ugly, and forgotten about. When the negative thoughts try to outweigh the positive in our minds, we have to replace those negative thoughts with the positive. We need to speak words that are positive. We need to look up Scriptures that speak well of us. Find and surround yourself with people who will uplift and speak positive of you as well. We are not meant to do life alone. We need genuine and sincere people in our lives that will help us and not hinder us. I've learned it's better to have a few faithful friends in your life than a whole lot that really aren't for you and are not sincere. The more positive we're around, the less room there is for negative to get into our mind. If we need help, we should ask. If we're not alright, then it's okay to say we're not alright. It's okay to admit and talk it out with someone. It doesn't always have to be problems we talk about to others. We can talk about good things going on in our lives and dreams and goals we have too. Talking out things is healthy and good. I have several people in my life that I can talk to and I'm grateful. Thank you to those that I can do that with! I appreciate you all so much! We also have to constantly check our thoughts and make sure they uplift God and us. We can have rest in our minds as we take one day at a time, take a deep break and keep speaking positive. As far as our spiritual health is concerned, we need to make sure that we are spending time with God in prayer and His Word. Just like in any relationship we have in our lives, we want to spend time with the person and build and get to know them. It's the same way with God. We should want to talk to God and ask him to show us ourselves daily. He will show us what we need to work on and what we can do to make those changes. These are the spiritual checkups. So, let's ask ourselves often: How are we doing at loving God? loving people? loving ourselves? How's our prayer life and Bible time? Have we connected with other believers lately? Have we helped or encouraged anyone lately? What do our posts and messages on social media look like? How grateful are we? How are we using our time? We need to constantly work on our relationship with God, so we can be spiritually healthy and keep growing in all the areas mentioned above. Then, there is our emotional health. Our emotions can be all over the place and change from minute to minute. It's okay to feel a certain emotion and acknowledge that feeling. We can't let that emotion control our decision or stop us from moving forward. For instance, it's hard to make clear and rational decisions when you're mad. So before you make that decision, pray, take a deep breath, walk away, be silent for a minute. We also need to check our stress and make sure we're not getting overwhelmed. Some things we stress over are made bigger in our mind or won't really matter in the long term. God will show us what needs our attention and what does not. He will also show us what to do about a situation and often send people along the way to help. It's okay if we don't have it altogether. I will be the first to admit that I don't! In fact, none of us do and we don't have to pretend to have it altogether. That's why it's so important that we do the best we can to stay on track. Know what we need to do to make those changes and keep moving forward. As we take care of ourselves, let's not forget to check on others. Say hi and see how people are doing. We never know what people are going through and it makes a difference when we take a moment to show we care. We take care of someone or something that is precious and valuable to us. I Corinthians 6:20 says, "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." We are all precious and valuable and should be well taken care of. So, take a few minutes each day to sit in your favorite chair and do nothing, take a walk outside, listen to music, draw, color, write, take a nap. Step away from social media from time to time and have face to face interaction. I promise you will see all your messages still there! Whatever you do, let's remember to take care!