Victoria Osteen

God created you and He made you.

And if you believe that about your life, then when you criticize yourself, you might as well be criticizing your Creator, the One who made you.

You see, if you can criticize his creation, then what you're doing is criticizing the creator because he made you, he formed you, he fashioned you just the way you should be.

See, when you encourage yourself, what you're doing is you're saying, thank you, God, for who you made me to be.

Thank you, God, that you've made me to be more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus, that I'm an overcomer because you backed me up, because I have your word in me.

See, it's so easy sometimes to see the good qualities in other people, yet ignore the good qualities in ourselves.

But I believe that we need to see the good things in ourselves, and we need to applaud even the smallest accomplishments.

You know, maybe you feel like you're a procrastinator, and there's been a project that you've been putting off.

Well, when you begin to start that project, even if you don't finish it, applaud yourself.

You know what?

What about that diet you've been trying to stay on?

Listen, when you have a good day, applaud yourself.

What about the addiction that you're overcoming?

When you see yourself trying, listen, crown your own efforts with the success.

Applaud yourself.

You see, we've got to learn to applaud even the smallest accomplishments in our life.

When we applaud ourself, you know what we're doing?

We're not being boastful.

We're not being egotistical and prideful.

We're building confidence and faith in ourself.