In our “Life is a journey, so what’s the best way to travel” series, we’ve now completed the first leg of our trilogy. So let’s have a quick review to regather our thoughts.

We started off by considering the greatest commandment which is to love God with all we’ve got and love our neighbors as ourselves. Here we discover three “loves”. Love God, love others, and love yourself. Love is a unique action verb. In all cases or circumstances, it requires an object. You can’t just love. You must love something or someone. The love referenced in the greatest commandment is the Greek word, agape. It is a relationship type of love–an unconditional love for another by having their best interest in mind.

In developing our life strategy, we first address how we love ourselves. In reality, to love oneself is to possess the desire to be the best you can be. We all want to be successful. Who looks in the mirror each morning and says to themselves, “You know, I’m going to try to screw up everything I’m involved in. My goal is to fail miserably in every action I do.” No one does that! We may still manage to accomplish it, but it’s never our objective. Thus, desiring to be successful and being the best we can be is the best way we can love ourselves. We desire to maximize our potential. Can you love someone more than that? Isn’t that the greatest form of love to desire the very best outcome for another?

Well, God loves us that way and as our heavenly Father, He wants the very best in us and for us. So, loving ourselves in this manner aligns ourselves perfectly with God’s will. That’s pretty cool! What’s a win for us is a win for God!

We’ve also discussed more than once that every project plan or life endeavor has three states–a Current State of where you are, a Future State of where you want to be and a Transition State or migration plan to get you efficiently and effectively from where you are to where you want to be. So, how do we combine these two concepts so that we love ourselves or be the best we can be in every moment, as we travel each day, and when we reach our final destination?

Great question and here’s the answer. We love ourselves by being the best we can be through following the three “P’s” of PREPARATION, PURPOSE, & PRIORITY.

In our Preparation, we recognize that our decisions play a huge role in determining where we are in life. Therefore, we need to be extremely wise in our decision-making. Life is tough, so we need to put on the full armor of God containing the impregnable material of truth before we venture out into the world. This gives us the tools to be successful in our day-to-day living. It addresses all that we need for our Current State.

Next, we begin with the end in mind to define our Future State. We need an overall life strategy and we achieve that by understanding our Purpose in life. We are here to glorify God. We quickly recall the first four words of the Bible, “In the beginning, God…”. It all starts with Him. In climbing our ladder of success, there are two aspects necessary—good management and good leadership. Management is the effective and efficient way we move up each rung of the ladder. Leadership is making sure the ladder is leaning against the right wall. Having the proper Purpose ensures our ladder is up against the correct wall. We are following Christ who is Truth (John 14:6) and He will not lead us astray. We glorify God by following Him. That is our Purpose.

Finally, in our Transition State, we have as our Priority to seek God’s Kingdom first in all that we do. We possess this mindset and attitude of heart to try to see the world as God sees the world. This aligns our viewpoint with God’s and gives us our daily guidance through the proper value system that we must have.

We move forward in life with each and every decision large or small that we make. Let us be Prepared and make wise decisions. The desired results of our decisions is that we glorify God in all that we do. That is our Purpose. The ultimate acknowledgement of success is to one day stand before our Lord and hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We guide our journey by establishing a Priority system for the choices we need to make. We seek His Kingdom as the highest priority in all our actions. We desire to see the world as God sees the world. When we follow these three travel principles, we will be the best we can be and that is the highest form of love that we can have for ourselves.

Here, I’ll interject an interesting note. As someone who has spent years doing consulting where you strive for optimization and perfection of a system, it is beyond amazing when you contemplate the wisdom of God. This incredibly complex universe that He created works best when it performs as it was designed. We are at our best and received the greatest sense of fulfillment when we perform as we were designed. When all this happens, God’s glory is maximized. It’s never a trade-off. It’s never “I do better at God’s expense” or “God is greater glorified at my expense.” It is always a directly correlated win-win in every aspect in every situation.

Well, we still have more winning to do as we are not finished. Our journey is not a solo one. We are not isolated in our quest, as there are fellow travelers to consider. This segues to our next three “P’s” where we address how we love others. Until then, be all you can be…pray up, suit up, and show up for the Lord!