JOY, PART 3... - Marcie W Bridges

Jesus. Others. You.

What does it mean to put ourselves last? I’ve
thought and thought on this aspect of our J.O.Y. acronym.

J IS FOR JESUS (FIRST)

So far we’ve
learned that we MUST put Jesus first in our lives. We must make Him the number
one priority in our hearts, souls and minds. In everything we do, He must come
first.

O IS FOR OTHERS (SECOND)

Next we learned that in order to have JOY we need to
make sure we put others ahead our needs and wants. How? By loving our neighbor
as ourselves.

YOU

Y IS FOR YOU (LAST)

Did you catch that? Love our
neighbors AS OURSELVES!

So how do we love our self? We love ourselves by
taking care of our bodies. We love ourselves by taking care of our families.
But above all, we love our self by keeping God first in our life. When we have
Him first and foremost, everything else falls into place as it should. (Hey! I’m
preaching to the choir here!) When we
allow God first place in our life, we will know how to treat others and we will
be happy to help others.

Putting ourselves last on
the list does not mean we give up on taking care of ourselves or doing things
for our own pleasure. It also doesn’t mean we get prideful about what we do and
how we live. Loving ourselves means we allow God to work in us to be the best
we can be in everything we do. It calls us to be thankful for what we have and
for who is in our lives. It asks us to do everything with a good attitude and
to be kind toward others no matter what. It reminds us to not only be
respectful to others, but to respect ourselves as well.

J.O.Y.

JESUS FIRST

OTHERS SECOND

YOU LAST

Being last isn’t a
death sentence. It is a quest to love the Lord God with all our hearts, all our
minds, and all our souls so that we can live fully and abundantly in Him!

Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the
first and great commandment.”