Truly Loving Yourself 2016.10.03b
Mark 12:31a "The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Most of the time, when someone reminds me about this verse (and for me, it's quite often), I cringe because I have to love my brothers\sisters\enemies better than I'm doing at that time - I need to love them like I love myself. That sounds unattainable but God knows better than me so who am I to argue?
But I sit here and wonder, "Do I truly love myself?" From a general perspective, one would say yes but from my own eyes, I don't think so. The things that my issues\insecurities do to me, um, no! Maybe I have a hard time "loving others" is because I struggle with it myself - forgiveness, grace, compassion, understanding...
We are made in His image (Psalm 139:14) and yet we will continue to struggle with loving ourselves if we do not consistently have a relationship with God (The first command in Mark 12:30). Maybe there's a reason why loving God the first command, and loving others is second - It can't be done in any other order. If we remain disconnected from God, we will continue to live out the labels we've given ourselves, or people have given us. We choose to live by "our voices", and not God's.
Think about this: God has the ability to see us for who we truly are, loves us anyways, and chooses to see us for what we can become through Him, His words can drive & change us... "our worth" has already been established by God, and yet we choose to listen to our own words?
