--Loving Others/ Love Ourselves First ~~

Jesus said..."'You shall love the LORD your GOD with all your heart,
with all your soul, and will all your mind.' This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like it: 'Your shall love your
neighbor as yourself.'" [Matthew 22:37-39/ NKJV]--
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---I memorized these verses as a child and always thought of them as two complete thoughts that sum up the Christian imperative. Love God. Love others. It was not until I became an adult that someone pointed out to me that third essential part: love yourself.

For me this is the hardest. And I believe it's because had I considered it at all when I was younger, I would have thought loving myself a vain, prideful thing to do. In other words, not a Christian thing. And I think that is a travesty. But that was my impression of Christianity. The emphasis was always putting others before yourself, not being arrogant or prideful or thinking too highly of yourself. Being a servant. The teachers in my faith community taught humility. But humility is not the opposite of loving yourself. Pride is.

I wish that instead of that impression, I'd learned that it grieves God when we treat ourselves poorly. Just as it would if we treated a brother or sister in Christ poorly. I wish that just as I'd learned to love others and treat them well, I'd learned to treat myself well, and love myself too. After all, Jesus said we should. In these verses, it seems like it's so obvious it's an assumption. The way we know how to love others best is to love ourselves first. ~~

'Mornings With Jesus'/ GFF~

--"How Can It Be"/ By: Lauren Daigle // <https://youtu.be/wmtmWJ3CaBE>
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