Start With Self

Eight times we are told in Scripture to love our neighbor as ourself. I've always been interested in why God chooses to say something once, twice or even eight times. He's God...once should be enough on any command. Still on the subject of loving our neighbor as ourself, He seems to want to drive the point home. Eight times! I've heard many sermons on loving your neighbor, but I want to delve a bit into "as thyself." Society, our mothers, friends, teachers, you name em', most everyone we know has taught that loving yourself is somewhat taboo and vain conceit. God doesn't say that; the very nature of this command is that He wills us to hold ourselves in high esteem. We think we understand what He means in regards to how we are to feel toward our neighbors. Why is so difficult to believe He wants you to treat yourself the same? By nature, people are their own worst critics. Can you imagine our response if others said to us what we said to ourselves on a daily basis? We have to rebuke Satan's lie that it is wrong to think ourselves worthy. Hold up...stop right there...I can almost hear some of you say, "but we can't be cocky, we can't be a narcissist, etc." Just pause, rewind and go with me on God's desire for you; not a prefaced explanation of how NOT to love yourself. God didn't bother adding ways of how NOT to be in even one of the eight passages. Tonight I ask you to ponder something. If we aren't loving ourselves then how in the world are we loving our neighbors the way GOD COMMANDED? Our Father is crazy about you, and He wants so desperately for you to be crazy about you so that you can LOVE others the way He desires. I am not foolish enough to believe this blog will transform you by its end, but I do expect, if you want to do His will, you will start searching for a better understanding of this "as thyself" command. You will earnestly seek ways to please God by accepting your worth in His Kingdom. You can start by knowing that self-love requires you to be honest about your current choices and thought patterns. Don't try to fool yourself. BE HONEST. Then undertake new practices to reflect and believe you are who HE says you are. I pray that this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. One between you and yourself. I want it so badly for you. My reasons are totally selfish. I want you to love you so that should we meet; I will be blessed in the way God intended for me to be when He wrote this. We will never be able to offer others Godly Love, unless we offer that love to ourselves first.