Treat Yourself Kindly After Error

by | Jul 5, 2017 | For Wounded Healers

Treat yourself kindly.


Dear Wounded Healer,

You help others better when you treat yourself kindly after error.
When you drive yourself like a slave master with a whip, you only have anxiety to offer the anxious and a smiling mask to offer the lonely.
When listening to someone, sometimes you misunderstand or fail to tune in to the root need. Forgive yourself and be patient. Trust yourself to recover and catch on.
Then you salute both the Spirit who loves you and the person to whom you listen. You honor that person with your vulnerability, letting her lead you to understanding. You trust the Spirit to lead you both through the error to a healing place.
Actually, you meet that challenge well. But you treat yourself more harshly in isolation when the only person with whom to relate is you.
Then it frightens you to forget, misplace, or misjudge. You question your competence and adequacy. You succumb to the illusion that your success and welfare rests solely on your shoulders with no help from God.
Perhaps you only trust God to value you as you help another, so you treat yourself more kindly then. Yes, God values you then, but not because you help. God values you like a loving parent who does not require success to cherish you.
Because God wants you to find joy in giving your gifts, God invites you to join in God’s slow work of loving the world. Yet, that beloved world also includes you. You honor God and complete your joy as much by receiving God’s love as you do by giving from your gifts.
In solitude, then, allow God to love you as you are. Drink from the cup of that love especially when you err. Then you allow God to be God, free and gracious, not requiring merit or pandering to your pride. And touched by God’s immeasurable mercy, you allow yourself to be yourself, God’s beloved child, free to love.
Grace & Peace,

Your Inner Voice of Love

Posts in the Wounded Healers Blog are messages of gentle encouragement I give to myself and offer to you as messages you may adopt for yourself. For further context, visit the home page.

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