1 Timothy 4:16 “Attend to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in both tasks, for by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.” This episode talks about how important it is to talk care of yourself, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Take Care of Yourself
1 Timothy 4:16 “Attend to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in both tasks, for by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.”
Attend to yourself is what stood out to me in this verse. Why is that such a hard thing to do? Why do we struggle with that so much? There are a couple ways I can see this being hard for us. The first way is taking care of ourselves. There are a few people that I know that do this very well. They make sure to take time for themselves. They love their family and do a great job taking care of them and yet they have learned that they can be better at taking care of their family if they take care of themselves too. Most people I know tend to take care of everyone else and sort of forget to take care of themselves. Is this you? Do you do everything for everyone else and then you are left worn down and tired with no energy and not feeling great about yourself? Are you always giving and never receiving? You are not alone. I think we all do this. The problem is, this is not healthy? This is not what is best for those around us.
We can’t be our best for those we love if we wear ourselves thin. If we are always giving and never receiving then we may start to feel resentful of those around us. We are not at our best if we are tired and worn out all the time. If we are always doing and never resting then we can start to feel unhappy inside. Once we start to feel unhappy inside it can be really hard to get out of those feelings. Depression and anxiety seem to be at an all time high right now. We must start to take care of ourselves if we want to change this; if we want to show up for ourselves and those around us in a way that we can sustain for the long haul. Some of you may be hearing this and thinking that is easier said than done. Some people might have the luxury of taking time for themselves, but that is just not possible for you in your circumstance. I get why it feels that way. I have been there before with three young boys all close in age. It felt like they needed me every second of every day. However, I was lucky and my husband was able to take care of them so I could take a break.
What if you don’t have a spouse to take care of the kids? What if you are a care giver to a child or spouse? What if there is no one to help? My answer to this is pray about it. Recognize that you need a break and figure out how to get one. Do you have extended family that can help out? Do you have a friend in a similar circumstance and the two of you can trade off services? Can you hire a babysitter or a house cleaner? I know we feel selfish if we do something for ourselves. It is not selfish to take care of yourself. It is actually the opposite. We need to take care of ourselves so we can continue to take care of those that need us. What good are we if we are burned out? Sometimes taking care of ourselves can be as simple as taking a bath, taking a long walk, talking a short walk, putting on some music and just breathing for 5 minutes. There are lots of ways to take care of yourself. Find something that brings you joy, gives you a chance to feel good, and helps you recharge. You will not be sorry you did.
The other way I see that we struggle to “attend to ourselves” is with respect to our spiritual journey. Oftentimes it is just so much easier to look at everyone else’s journey. It is easier for us to judge others than it is for us to judge ourselves. We are quick to point out where other people are falling short and yet we fail to see all the ways we are. This verse is telling us to attend to ourselves. God tells us this again in Matthew 7:3-5 when he says, “ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” I did an episode in the last few weeks about judgement so I won’t address that today. However, if this is something you struggle with, and we all do, then go back and listen to episode #210 if you haven’t heard it already.
Today I want to just take a minute to talk about how we can attend to ourselves. How can we make sure that we are living the way God wants us to live? First, we can figure out how God is calling us to live. The best way to do this is through reading His word. If you have not made this a daily practice yet, I challenge you to start today. Even if you just read one verse a day, or one chapter a day, or maybe you set a timer and just read 5 minutes a day, you will see a change. Immersing yourself in His word is so powerful and equips you with the words you need to fight off the enemy. Another way is to read spiritual books. We all struggle in life. It is a given and yet we don’t all struggle with the same things. Whatever it is you are struggling with, there is a book out there that helps you deal with it. There are spiritual books that help you deal with things like anxiety, anger, depression, and other struggles of the mind. There are also spiritual books that help us with the struggles of our soul, like living out the virtues, using the gifts of the Holy Spirit, how to pray more, how to pray better, if you have a struggle, or a question, there has been a book written about it. Reading or listening if you enjoy audiobooks can be a great way to learn all you want to learn.
I love the last sentence in this verse. “persevere in both tasks, for by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.” I love the word persevere. I think it is a great goal for all of us. I also like that it says we will not only save ourselves but those who listen to us. However, we can only save those who listen to us if we are teaching them the correct things. This is why it is important to know how to live. We can live in a manner such that those around us see how we are living and want to live that way too. Let’s all try to be a reflection of Jesus. When we are people will want what we have and they will do what we do. First, we need to attend to ourselves and then others will follow.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to the episode today. Lord, help us attend to ourselves and our teachings first. Help us to save ourselves and those that listen to us. You said in Matthew 18:6, “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Help us to not cause others to stumble. Help us live a life in a way that reflects you and your ways back to the world. Help us be your light in the world. We love you Lord, you are amazing. Help us be amazing through you. Help us to not judge others. Lord, I ask that you help everyone listening to this episode take care of themselves. If they do not know how, I ask that you open doors for them. We are so grateful for all that you do for us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again on Monday. Have a blessed weekend.