Posts Tagged: selfishness vs. kindness to oneself

“Be Kind to Yourself, Self!”

On May 17, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“A man who is kind benefits himself,

but a cruel man hurts himself.” (Proverbs 11:17, English Standard Version)

Being kind to yourself!  Did you know that was in the Bible?  It is!  Proverbs 11:17 is saying that, ultimately, kindness is self-rewarding and cruelty is self-punishing.

Commenting on Proverbs 11:17, Matthew Henry writes, “It is a common principle, Every one for himself. Proximus egomet mihi—None so near to me as myself. Now, if this be rightly understood, it will be a reason for the cherishing of gracious dispositions in ourselves and the crucifying of corrupt ones. We are friends or enemies to ourselves, even in respect of present comfort, according as we are or are not governed by religious principles.”

My 12-step affirmation for today is as follows: “Today, by God’s grace, I am consistently kind to myself.  That way, I am also being kind to other people and our little dog.”  I will work on that!

Kindness to others helps me to be kinder to myself.  The converse is also true.  If I am truly kind to myself, I will find it much easier to be kind to my other selves.

Of course, in the preceding sentence the expression “truly kind” is tricky.  Perhaps the word “truly” is as important as the word “kind.”  There is a “kindness” that really isn’t kind.  Selfishness is not kindness to myself.  I have yet to meet a selfish person who is truly happy.  That’s because selfishness is not truly kind.

There’s a song by the Eagles that makes a wonderful statement about kindness to oneself.  The lyrics of “The Long Run” (by Don Henley and Glenn Frey) go, in part, like this:

“You know I don’t understand why you don’t treat yourself better
Do the crazy things that you do . . . .”


Two good questions to ask us on a regular basis are as follows: Am I treating myself with kindness?  Am I treating others with kindness?

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