Self-help quotes aren't it.

“Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept.” — Anna Taylor

I’m sure you’ve come across this quote before and several other motivational self-care quotes on your timeline. Whether videos, images, or texts, you must have come across them at some point.

Image by Alisa Anton from Unsplash

And they’re great quotes. Very helpful, but I have beef with the “self-care” quotes. Not all of them, just most of them. Especially the ones talking about how you can get peace by following some mantras.

The thing is, life hasn’t happened to you yet.

Life happening to you doesn’t have to be catastrophic or anything like that. It just needs to push you to the point where you’re under severe pressure and chances of no hope anywhere.

A point where you can’t help but worry every second of the day. You’re close to becoming what we call a sadist. That point where you’ve been broken into the tiniest of pieces. Yes, that’s the point I’m referring to.

I doubt those “self-care” mantras will ever cross your mind at this point.

It’s not just the “self-care” mantras now, but also the “self-growth” mantras. From the likes of Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, etc.

What they say makes sense, but it’s help is limited. And that’s my point. The help of these mantras is very limited. Very!

They teach you to rely on yourself when you were made to rely on your creator. It’s human nature to rely on something. We rely on things every single day.

If you truly were made to rely on only yourself, you wouldn’t be saving for a car to take you to places faster, would you? You’d just run there, right?

And you definitely wouldn’t need kitchen utensils to make yourself a nice meal. Or a house to shield you from the weather and its shenanigans, would you?

So, you see, we were never made to rely on only ourselves. We are beings that will always need help. Continuously listening to teachings that teach you to rely solely on yourself goes against your very own nature.

They help, yes, but there’s a limit to the help they give.

And when life pushes you to those tipping points, it’s not self-care quotes or self-growth quotes that cross your mind. It’s worry that crosses your mind.

Self-care or self-growth quotes have little to no strength against worry. But there’s something that can defeat worry and bring you peace, and those are God’s quotes.

It’s the only thing that can bring you true peace, even when life has pushed you way beyond your limits.

True peace to the point where people start asking you how you smile in the situations you’re in. Yes, that kind of peace.

The kind of peace that’s born out of a conviction that you’re never alone, especially in those bad places, and that Joy is coming in the morning.

A magnificent hope.

That’s why you should shift your mind from learning self-care mantras from men to learning them from God.

Where can I find these mantras?
In the Bible, mate.

You can find them in the Bible.

Image by Masoud Mostafaei from Unsplash

And there are lots of them in there. Here is a list of a few I picked up in my study;

1. Embrace Holistic Wellness (3 John 1:2)

2. Release Your Burdens (1 Peter 5:7)

3. Accept Divine Rest (Matthew 11:28)

4. Experience True Peace (Philippians 4:7)

5. Renew Your Mind (Romans 12:2)

6. Value Intentional Rest (Mark 6:31)

7. Find Joy in Community (Philippians 2:2)

8. Practice Gratitude Prayer (Philippians 4:6)

9. Draw on His Strength (Philippians 4:13)

10. Focus Higher (Colossians 3:2)

The Bible is a beautiful book filled with knowledge that the Holy Spirit can help you turn to wisdom, but only if you let it be that to you.

The Bible means different things to different people, but that’s not your concern. Your concern is what it means to you.

Get help, but get it the way God designed that you get it. Not from men, but from Him. Cheers…