Loving yourself

Do you love yourself? Do you truly understand what it even means to love yourself? Do you realize how important it is?
If you read your bible, you will see that Jesus considers it of the utmost importance.
Matthew 22: 36-40 says:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Do you see it?
One of the Pharisees, an "expert in the law", asked Jesus that question. He knew the law, yet he tested Jesus to see if HE knew. I wonder if Jesus "blew him away" with His answer. Jesus put things in perfect order of priority. Love God, your neighbor AND yourself. So first we must love God. We must love Him with our WHOLE heart, soul & mind. He tells us that this is the first & the GREATEST commandment. No other commandment is as great, however, there is one that is" just like it"- "Love your neighbor as yourself". Jesus said that ALL of the law AND the Prophets hang on those 2 commandments. They are that great. Being lumped into the same category as loving God is a pretty important place to be. There is such a twisted perception in the world regarding loving one's self that most people don't even know HOW to! Yet, it is important enough that Jesus included it is the commandments, and even considered it one of the highest ones! It's easy to see, then, that we must make loving ourselves an important priority. If we can't love ourselves, how can we truly love our neighbors?
Now that we recognize the importance of it, how can we do it?
Well it helps to first see yourself the way that God sees you. For many of us, that is difficult, because we base our love on conditions, and we can never meet the conditions of a person "worthy" of love. If that describes you, have no fear because you don't have to!
Jesus is the perfect example of love, and He is the one who paid our sin debt for us. Because of Him, everything ugly about us is washed pure & clean. We can NEVER be worthy on our own, but we are seen worthy by the Father because of what the Son did for us. That sounds nice, you say, but can you give me practical suggestions?
Absolutely!
To love ourselves as God loves us, we must see ourselves as Jesus does, and react to our faults the same way He would. When you fail, forgive yourself. It's just that simple. Jesus forgives you, why, then should you not forgive yourself? He wants us to be like Him. When you beat yourself up & refuse to forgive yourself, you are saying you don't believe He has the power to forgive, even though scripture teaches that God has forgiven you. When you cannot forgive yourself, you give the devil a foothold, and you are saying you don't love yourself because you simply can't love yourself enough to forgive yourself. God made you, He knows ALL your faults & weaknesses (see prior post) why, then, would He not forgive you? He understands you!
That brings me to my second point...understand yourself! Loving yourself is truly getting in touch with your needs & wants. It is paying attention to your behaviors & correcting or accepting them. You are unique, God made you that way. When you look to the scriptures to guide you in becoming the person God intended you to be, you learn that your uniqueness was a perfect design in the Master's plan & that God will use those things in you to bring glory to Him.
Which brings me to my third, and last, point...see in yourself what God sees in you. When was the last time you TRULY looked? When you took your eyes off the things you don't like about yourself & put your eyes on the things you COULD like about yourself? Look closely at yourself. Chances are you will see a lot of the same things in yourself that you wasted time envying in others. God gave you the talents that He intended YOU to use. He supplied you with everything YOU need to fulfill His perfect plan for your life. When you refuse to look within & see in yourself what God sees in you, what He has created in you, you keep a part of yourself locked up..unable to experience what it is to truly love yourself as He does.

I don't know what you are struggling with, but most of us are struggling with SOMETHING. Beating ourselves up because of our human imperfections. If we're being that hard on ourselves, it's no wonder we are so hard on others. We expect so much from them, and are very annoyed when they do not live up to our "standard" of what a person should be. I tell you true, unless you can learn to love yourself, you will never experience TRUE freedom. Something will always be there, holding on for your next slip up. Learn to embrace this scripture:
Psalm 103:11-12
"For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. " God loves you so much He extends mercy & casts away your transgressions. If we could embrace His mercy & take our eyes off of our transgressions, just as He has, we would love ourselves far more than we ever thought we could.

God bless you as you learn to love yourself!