(1) Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; (2) prove your own selves. (3) Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2 Cor.13:5). A boy on his lunch break at another store called his store and asked for a job. They told him no jobs were available. He then asked about the young boy who worked there. They replied that he was a good boy and he is very valuable to our store. As the happy young boy was leaving the manager who had over heard, offered him a job at his store. He replied, “Oh, I don’t need another job. I am that valuable young man they love. I was just checking up on myself.” There are times we need to examine, prove, and know ourselves. We need to check up on ourselves.
It seems hard to focus on your faults, but easy to focus on the faults of others. We need to check up on ourselves. Examine YOU! Your mentality, behaviors, moods, and actions. Really understand why you do what you do. Sometimes times I realize, I am the problem, and at times I don’t even like me! Learn it is not an issue of who is right, but what is right. Realize you are your biggest problem, and as Pogo says, “Everywhere I go, there I am.” He also said, “I have found the enemy and it is me.” The one you see in the mirror is the cause of most of your problems. Some brighten a room when they enter, while some brighten a room when they leave. Some leave you refreshed while some leave you depressed with stress.
Learn to make yourself more valuable! Be willing to do what others do not or will not do. Go the second-mile with a smile. Replace bad habits with good habits (Col.3:8-14). Do it even when you feel unworthy and useless. Realize there will be “human” moments, but don’t let them overcome you. Don’t be overcome but be an over-comer. I have learned a long journey begins with the first step!
Do it! Examine YOU! What Makes You – You? You will be glad you did and so will others. You are the product and process of your heredity, environment, background, conscious and unconscious mind, experience, preferences, positions, and emotions. But don’t let these things define you. You possess the great power of choice in your mind, heart, and will. Decisions determine directions – directions determine destinations. Keep a good relationship with the Lord and others. Don’t love things, love people. Leave a loving legacy. I’d rather succeed than have my way and fail. The greatest hindrance is free-will. “Not thy will, but my will be done!”
Learn the Gospel redeems us, prayer restores us, Scripture renews us, friends refresh us, the Spirit reminds us, Lord reforms us, and the church revives us. The world conforms us, the Spirit and Scriptures transform us (Rom. 12:1-2). Learn you cannot change others, but you can change yourself. It is not what happens to you, but in you that makes the difference. There is always room for self-improvement. Just ask your spouse, or your children. So, as you examine others, don’t forget to examine yourself!
