Beloveds, rally round yourselves. Be your own best friend. Give yourself all the support you wish others would give to you. Whose opinion really matters but yours and Mine?

It seems to Me that if you had friends who were the way you see yourself, you would stay away from them. You may be a good friend to others, but you haven't been much of a friend to yourself. Always backbiting. Second-guessing. Why, you nip at your own heels! You make endless suggestions on how you could be better or richer or smarter. Never satisfied, you harp on improving yourself. You are never satisfied. No matter what you do and how hard you try, you tend to be displeased with your personality and character and appearance and a sundry list of faults you have inundated yourself with. You point out one flaw after another. What kind of a friend is that?

One thing you can really improve on is to start befriending yourself. Will you be a true friend, a real friend, instead of a so-called friend who wants to turn you into someone quite different, even someone else? Be the kind of friend who likes you just as you are right now, a friend who does not constantly harp on how you can be thinner, exercise more and eat less, read more or read less, be neater or less neat. In other words, a friend that is fun and enlivening to be with. A friend you want to spend time with, a friend who has a good opinion of you, even thinks highly of you.

You will admit, won't you, that you have had a hard time favoring yourself? You've had a hard time thinking much of yourself. Beloveds, how can I convince you to be more than your own stepchild, someone to put down at every turn? Be your own fairy godmother. At least, cease from being your own wicked stepmother. No longer treat yourself like Cinderella in the ashes. If you must be Cinderella, then be Cinderella who has already been rescued by the prince.

If you truly do want to benefit yourself, start looking at yourself differently. You have been a harridan when it comes to yourself. Could you become a handmaiden or a courteous valet, or the kind of waitress who serves you well?

I adjure you to become friendly and faithful to yourself. Be your own best friend. Be true to yourself. Have some regard. Pat yourself on the back. Give yourself some cheer.

The more you favor yourself, the more you will favor others. The more you fault yourself, the more you fault others.

Beloveds, nobody likes a crab. Not even you do. Don't put up with it.

Never mind your faults or anyone else's. Stop being down on yourself, as if you don't amount to much. How can you be My child and not be worthy? You certainly have been at fault in faulting yourself. Beginning now, star the good features. That is all you have to do. Immediately, that will improve you.

It is not so much that you need praise. For sure, you don't need criticism. You have had enough criticism to last a lifetime. You can use some appreciation, and you are the one to give it to yourself. Go to bat for yourself. Enough undermining. Even a modicum of self-recognition will light a fire under you. All the energy you will have because you are little nicer to yourself!

Think of what can happen when you are a lot nicer to yourself. Think of how nice and appreciative you will be of others. You may even turn the tide of the world, simply by regarding yourself in the light I see you in.