Improve Yourself (No One Else Can)

Note: Taken from “God is in the Small Stuff” by Bruce Bickel & Stan Jantz

Photo source: goodmenproject.com

“No, dear friends, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.” – Philippians 3:13, NLT 

Will there ever be a time when you will stop learning and improving yourself? 

Will it happen when you get your high school diploma? Not then, because the education process has only just begun. 

At college graduation? Hardly, because the lessons of the real world await. 

When you become a parent with your own children to raise? Certainly not, because every parent has to stay mentally sharp just to keep up with the “new math.” 

Will you be able to stop learning and improving when you reach your “golden years?” That’s doubtful, because then you’ll need more wits than ever to figure out all of the discounts to which you are entitled.
So when does your quest to improve yourself end? When you stop breathing. 

Between now and then, you should consider yourself to be an ongoing project. A work in process. Always improving. Never stagnant.

Self-improvement is a popular topic. 

In the midst of our current technology generation, we are told that our minds are like computers – they are only good as they are programmed. 

But the emphasis on continuing personal development is not unique to contemporary society. Several decades ago someone wrote, “You are what you think.” And even before that, the Bible said, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7, KJV).

God did not design you to be stagnant or sluggish in any respect: spiritually, physically, mentally, or socially. To borrow a book title from Chuck Swindoll, God intends that you “live about the level of mediocrity.”

Self-improvement doesn’t happen automatically. 

It requires constant, systematic, and disciplined personal development. There are books to be read, people to meet, and new places to discover. 

Your personal growth is a privilege, not a burden. This is where God loves to get involved in the details of your life. Let Him in and watch Him work in the small stuff of your life to help you grow and improve.

Each day, as you begin again your process of personal growth, remember that it all begins with your attitude. You must prepare your heart and program your mind for self-improvement. 

Like the Scripture says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8, NLT).