Have I told you lately...
that I LOVE ME????
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Okaaaaaaaaaaay sooooo i'm TOTALLY kidding...buuuuuuuut to a point, because at the same time, I'm kinda NOT!!! Soooooo I get a lot of flack about being IN LOVE WITH MYSELF...buuuuuuuuuuuut I would like to point a scripture out to everyone for a moment...
"... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
(Matthew 22:39)
In this scripture, we emphasize A LOT about us LOVING our neighbor, HOWEVER, we forget the part about loving our neighbor LIKE WE LOVE OURSELVES. After contemplating this scripture for a while, it leaves a question in my mind, IF God wants us to love our neighbors as we LOVE OURSELVES, can we REALLY LOVE others, when we have NOT even yet learned to LOVE OURSELVES???
.
God commands us to LOVE OTHERS as we LOVE OURSELVES, however, does that mean that some people don't love others very much, because they don't truly love themselves? I can't help but think that some people don't love others very much, because they don't love THEMSELVES very much!!!
.
Have you ever thought about the fact that this scripture says that God WANTS us to LOVE OURSELF??? Now, I'm NOT talking about in a selfish way, where the ONLY person we think about is ME!!! Where we think that the world revolves around ME and we seek glory and honor. However, I do believe that God wants us to love ourselves in a way where we know our value as God's creation and we are able to have respect and regard for ourselves. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:27) You were MADE in God's image, therefore you had BETTER have some respect for yourself!
We have to keep that balance of knowing our value as God's handiwork, and the astounding knowledge of knowing that we were made in HIS IMAGE...yet keep ourselves humbled in knowing that without HIS touch, we are NOTHING!!! On our own, all of our righteousness is as filthy rags..."But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.." (Isaiah 64:6) That without HIS forgiveness, we are NOTHING but sinners on our way to hell. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 4:23)
.
As I've said before HERE talking about self-esteem, I truly believe that the key to loving yourself, is in the way you love God. I have in my own life that it is in the times of spiritual dryness that I feel the worst about myself. I truly believe that the closer you are to God the better you will feel about yourself and the better you feel about yourself, the better you will treat others.
.
The Bible says
"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22: 36-40)
.
I've been told before, that I am a very loving person. Its just the way that God made me, my heart just naturally goes out to people and connects with them. Someone once told me that they knew that God had sent them my way because I am a very loving person and God knows that they needed A LOT of love. I don't say this to brag on myself, its just truth, by nature, I am a very loving, affectionate and nurturing person...
.
I believe it all ties together, FIRST LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL ELSE, next LOVE PEOPLE...LIKE YOURSELF!!! The MORE YOU LOVE GOD, the MORE you'll love yourself, therefore THE MORE YOU'LL LOVE PEOPLE!!!
.
Is the fact that I am a loving person in anyway correlated with the fact that I also have the ability to love myself??? I truly believe it does! I as a person, am literally, BIBLICALLY OBLIGATED,
to LOVE PEOPLE,
as much as I LOVE MYSELF...
...which is quite a lot of loving WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT!!! ;)))
"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
(Deuteronomy 6:5)
♥Mary Frances :)
.
