{"id":805,"date":"2017-04-03T17:27:01","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T17:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=805"},"modified":"2017-04-03T17:27:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T17:27:01","slug":"2-promises-make-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html","title":{"rendered":"2 Promises to Make to Yourself Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lady<\/a><\/p>\n

We make promises to other people throughout our lives. When we are young, if we get confirmed, we promise the church that we will be faithful members.\u00a0 If we get married, we promise our spouse that we will love and cherish him or her.\u00a0 And if we buy a house and get a mortgage, we promise the bank that we will make loan payments every month.<\/p>\n

We make all kinds of promises to others, but do we make similar commitments to ourselves?\u00a0 Do we commit to taking care of our own needs?\u00a0 Below are two promises that you should make to yourself. Make a commitment today to love, honor and cherish You.<\/p>\n

I Promise Not to Give Others the Power to Undermine My Confidence<\/strong>: We unfortunately live in a world in which people will say things, either intentionally or unintentionally, which undermine our self-confidence.\u00a0 These comments can be in the form of back-handed compliments. \u00a0\u201cOh, your hair looks good today.\u201d<\/em> Or false expressions of concern.\u00a0 \u201cYou look tired<\/em>.\u00a0 Is everything OK?\u201d\u00a0 Or they may come in the guise of well-meaning advice. \u201cI know you want to pursue your dream of becoming a musician.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll be discouraged if you try. No one<\/em> makes it.\u00a0 You should do something more practical<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

For whatever reason, many people have difficulty saying an encouraging word. Worse yet, some people are negative by nature.\u00a0 If you allow yourself to be affected by the comments of these people, you naturally will get discouraged.<\/p>\n

You have to promise yourself that you will not allow the comments of others to affect your self-esteem. That is hard to do.\u00a0 After many years of thinking about this issue, I know of only one solution:\u00a0Listen only to God.<\/p>\n

God made you the way you are for a reason. He made you a certain height, and He gave you certain skin color and hair color for a reason.\u00a0 He also gave you certain talents for a reason.\u00a0 You are perfect in His eyes!\u00a0 Don\u2019t question God\u2019s handiwork, and certainly don\u2019t listen to anyone else who does.<\/p>\n

Now if there are areas of your character that God wants you to improve, He will let you know. God doesn\u2019t hide from us where we need to better ourselves.\u00a0 But it is God\u2019s job to guide you on that path; it is not the job of other people.<\/p>\n

Remember that God, the creator of all things, loves you unconditionally. So, why place so much stock in the opinions of others?\u00a0 Instead, focus on God.\u00a0 And know that His is the only opinion that truly matters.<\/p>\n

I Promise to Never Give Up on My Dreams: <\/strong>God has a good plan for every person\u2019s life.\u00a0 And God plants dreams in our hearts in order to inspire us to fulfill that plan.<\/p>\n

For instance, God gave me a love of books. Then, at a certain point, He put a dream in my heart to not just read, but to write.\u00a0 And since that time, I\u2019ve followed that dream with the hope of using my writing to serve Him.<\/p>\n

What is exciting about following your dreams is that you don’t know where they may lead.\u00a0 When I was in high school, I had a dream to go to college.\u00a0 However, I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay for it.\u00a0 I ended up going to the University of Toronto because it was the only financially feasible option for me.\u00a0 While there, I ended up having three remarkable New Testament professors who inspired me and changed how I viewed the Bible.\u00a0 God’s hand was at work when he placed me at that university.<\/p>\n

It is always a leap of faith when we say \u201cYes\u201d to God.\u00a0 But when we pursue our God-inspired dreams, amazing and unexpected things can happen.\u00a0 Our actions mixed with divine intervention can produce incredible results.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

In life, we promise the sun, moon and stars to others. It is well worth it to also make some bold commitments to yourself.\u00a0 Commit to putting God first and to believing that He has a good plan for your life.\u00a0 And commit to using all your energy and talent to fulfilling God\u2019s purpose for your life\u00a0here on earth.<\/p>\n

(Photo Courtesy of Pexels)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We make promises to other people throughout our lives. When we are young, if we get confirmed, we promise the church that we will be faithful members.\u00a0 If we get married, we promise our spouse that we will love and cherish him or her.\u00a0 And if we buy a house and get a mortgage, we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n2 Promises to Make to Yourself Today - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2 Promises to Make to Yourself Today - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We make promises to other people throughout our lives. When we are young, if we get confirmed, we promise the church that we will be faithful members.\u00a0 If we get married, we promise our spouse that we will love and cherish him or her.\u00a0 And if we buy a house and get a mortgage, we…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-03T17:27:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2017\/04\/lady-in-blue-coat-A.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meerabelle Dey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"2 Promises to Make to Yourself Today - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"2 Promises to Make to Yourself Today - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","og_description":"We make promises to other people throughout our lives. When we are young, if we get confirmed, we promise the church that we will be faithful members.\u00a0 If we get married, we promise our spouse that we will love and cherish him or her.\u00a0 And if we buy a house and get a mortgage, we…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html","og_site_name":"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","article_published_time":"2017-04-03T17:27:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2017\/04\/lady-in-blue-coat-A.jpg"}],"author":"Meerabelle Dey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html","name":"2 Promises to Make to Yourself Today - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2017\/04\/lady-in-blue-coat-A.jpg","datePublished":"2017-04-03T17:27:01+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-03T17:27:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#\/schema\/person\/7250ab2fc75dd2e7e923fbec0fbb375c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2017\/04\/lady-in-blue-coat-A.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2017\/04\/lady-in-blue-coat-A.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2017\/04\/2-promises-make-today.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"2 Promises to Make to Yourself Today"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/","name":"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Meerabelle Dey","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#\/schema\/person\/7250ab2fc75dd2e7e923fbec0fbb375c","name":"Meerabelle Dey","description":"Meerabelle Dey has a B.A. in History and Religious Studies from the University of Toronto and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Much of her legal career has been spent dealing with issues affecting women, children and the poor. She has lived in the United States, Canada and the Middle East. Meerabelle now devotes her time to writing. Her mission is to use her writing to inspire others to achieve God\u2019s unique purpose for their life.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/author\/mdey"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/593"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}