‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ (Luke 10:37 New King James Version)

While many people are using words such as Resilience, Faith, Grace or Growth, just to name a few, as their word of the year to focus on, which are great, I have decided that this year my word will be L❤VE. I need to take care of myself this year in heart, soul, strength and mind (with God’s help of course) before I can be of any use to my fellow man.

Some people think that taking care of yourself is selfish or egocentric but that couldn’t be further from the truth. We all know the proverbial saying prior to flight take off is to “put your oxygen mask on first before assisting others” because we know that we are of no use to anyone if we are passed out. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish, it is highly necessary, and after the year we just survived, focusing on and taking better care of ourselves a bit more may just help us connect better with the world around us.

Therefore, I have decided to center my 2021 goals around the words within the above-noted verse. I know that God is always with me and Lord knows I love Him, so I am going to love myself more the way He loves me, starting with my heart (physical health), soul (physical space and how it affects me), strength (doing better and being a better person) and mind (mental health and intellectual). With the grace of God, I pray that He gives me the strength to pull this off. 🙏

This year I am taking better care of myself so that I can love my neighbor as myself as God intended, and so that one day I will live the life I’ve imagined.

With l❤ve in Christ,

Maria