In My service, beloveds, not so much in thine.

This does not mean that you overlook yourself. This does not mean that you give so much of yourself away that you are drained. When you tend to give overly of yourself, say:

"Let me be in service to God. Let me serve His needs, not mine. Let me not kid myself that I am overextending myself in service to God. God does not want me to give away myself so that I am drained. I put God first, yes, and God wants me to live in joy."

Yes, of course, I want you to be loving to all. Yes, of course, I want you to give love. I also want you to love yourself. That is not the same as being selfish. Yes, of course, I want you to be unselfish, yet I do not ask you to give away a pound of your flesh. I do not ask you to work your fingers to the bone. I don't ask you to give the skin off your back.

Yes, of course, I want you to give without thought of return. Yes, you are not to always think of yourself first. And, yet, I do want you to think of yourself and not deplete yourself. If you give away the shirt off your back, that's fine, when you do it from your heart of love. When you do it to show yourself or another that you are a most giving person, that's not the same. Most especially, if down the road, when the shirt you give does not seem to be valued, and you start to feel resentful, then don't give away your shirt in the first place. Better to leave someone shirtless than in debt to you.

If you have only one shirt, you cannot give it away to ten people. Yet that is what you sometimes do with your energy and leave none for yourself. Giving is not meant to be a negative, beloveds.

It's fine to come away without your shirt when you can do so without a backward glance.

We come again to the subject of not being attached, not even to good deeds, not even to being a great giver, not even to being noble, not even to being unselfish.

When you give more than you are capable of giving without patting yourself on the back, then you may want to wonder what, deep down, whether you are serving or taking. It is better to give than not to give, and yet giving has to be with a fullness of heart.

This is tricky. You want to be all-giving, and you don't want to give more than you can give without regret and second thoughts. You want to be unselfish rather than selfish. You understand that you are not to measure what you give and to expect any return, and, yet, as much as you would like to be, you don't seem to be there yet. This is a dilemma for you, isn't it?

Although every one of My children is responsible to everyone everywhere, and you are meant to give, it is important that you keep some remnant of regard for yourself. If you find yourself feeling regretful for having given, if you find yourself feeling denigrated for giving, what are you to do but to do something nice for yourself?

If what you are giving is more important to you than it is to the person you are giving to, then ask yourself why you are so insistent on giving?

When I speak of giving, I am not speaking only of coins or material gifts. I am also speaking of time and heart. And it is not to think that you are wasting time by giving of your time or that you are wasting your heart by giving your heart, and yet you have experienced this. I tell you all the time of your Greatness, and yet that does not mean that you are the great solver for other people's difficulties. Only unto your consciousness can you help others. There are matters which you do best to leave to Me.