Love Yourself, Love Your God, & Love Your Person

These 3 pieces of advice seem pretty basic. But trust me, they're far from basic: Love Yourself, Love Your God, & Love Your Person

1.  Don't awaken love till the time is right; it's a form of self-love to wait for the right time and person.

Bored people think about love a lot, and I can testify.

Sometimes you're not craving love and attention; you're just bored. You're not staying in touch with your friends and you're not doing anything outside work or school that give you life. So, whenever you go on Instagram, Twitter, Netflix and see something even remotely romantic you're suddenly aware of your singleness and you imagine that your life will be so much fuller if you had romantic love.
But there's so much more to you.  You have friends that need you. You have talents that need to be expressed. You have more money-making opportunities in you. You have organizations that could use your generosity, especially your time.
The thing is, you'll actually need all these other parts of your life to help keep you balanced when you get the love you want. As you can imagine, it is really tiring to be the sole object of joy or excitement in a person's life. Don't expect love to complete you. Leave love alone, and find things to do.

However, if you've soul-searched and you are living a full life, and you're still sure that it's not just boredom, consider that there might be things you're missing out on in your current season because you're pining so much for what you don't have. It might be helpful to pray for new perspective, and to focus more on the things in front of you.

Bottom line: 

• Don't force relationships or relationships that are failing just because you're bored/lonely.
• Pause and reflect on your life at the moment. Are there ways you can get more out of your life? More things you can do? Do them. Are there more things God might be teaching you in this season? Ask God for perspective if you're stuck on this one.

2. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and body

Life is sweeter, richer, and more meaningful with God. Knowing God and embracing Him as my source for everything has been (and still is) a journey of redefining who I am. It has meant unlearning lies that the culture, family, and even my mind have told me. It has meant re-learning truths from God's word and promises from the Bible that I took for granted. It has ultimately meant redefining what truly matters in my life.
You owe it to yourself to get a solid understanding of who you are and what you want from your life, because it's really easy to make a lover your god, i.e, something you supremely take your joy in.  And it's not like that temptation to make gods out of good things disappear after you choose to embrace God. But, if you choose to depend on God as the center of your life and joy,  you'll be better equipped to treat your lover as a fellow fallible human, who needs God too. And when love and lovers fall short of your expectations, it won't permanently feel like your life has fallen apart.

Bottom line:

• Embrace God fully; fill the God-sized hole in your heart with God, not love.

3. Love Your Person
When you find a Godly person, who you like and likes you back [and whose clothes you also want to rip off] cherish this person like crazy!

Bottom line:

• Let it be mutual. One-sided love hurts. Granted, love may take time to grow, but before you invest all your emotions and resources into this, let the attraction be mutual.

• While this alone isn't enough to build on; don't discount sexual attraction.

• Cherish each other. Keep hunting for the good in each other. Keep praying for insights on how to magnify each other's strengths and diminish their weaknesses.

Got anything to add? Leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what you think is missing, or if you agree or disagree with any of these.

Until next time... Love Yourself, Love Your God, & Love Your Person
- Fopsy