A Fully-Actualized Person

“Abraham Maslow, one of the giant thinkers of the twentieth century,

brought a radical shift of perspective to psychology

and began an entirely new approach to therapy as he realized

the importance for persons to find purpose outside themselves.”

Maxie Dunnam

Abraham Maslow named Jesus as a fully-actualized person. I don’t think that I will ever be, at least in this life, a fully-actualized person. I think about what I want and how I want things to be much more than I think about others. I have found that when I am focused on helping others find happiness I am happier than I am when I am thinking only on my own self. So why do I keep being self centered? Jesus stated openly that he came into the world to save the lost. The accusation that the mob made against Jesus at the scene of his crucifixion was, “He saves others but himself he cannot save.” They spoke truth without knowing it. He could not save himself from the cross and save us from our sins. We do not have to die physically to defer to our spouse. We do have to die to our selfishness in order to defer to our spouse.

            We cannot change our spouse. We can change ourselves. When I married Barbara she was almost perfect, however, there were a few things that needed tweaking. That should have been a piece of cake. Just take away this and add this no problem. You cannot imagine! Tweaking does not work! But silly me, I kept on trying until one day I had an epiphany. I said to myself I am just going to accept my wife just as she is. Wow, what a difference I experienced. No more bad feelings, no anger that she did not do this or that. Understand she did not change. She was still the same Barbara. It was me that changed and that made me a lot happier. Now if you can change your spouse, bully for you, if you can’t try changing yourself. I recommend it. You will like it.