As Thyself

"And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (Matthew 22:39). If we are struggling to develop or maintain positive, loving relationships with those around us, we may want to examine how well we love ourselves. We cannot love another to a greater or higher degree than we love ourselves. This is just not possible. Love has to flow through us and into another person. If we are mired in shame and self-pity and self-loathing, then we are like a kinked hose; only a bare trickle of love can flow through us. If we do not currently love ourselves then we are breaking half of the second most important of all of God's commandments and we need to repent. God is the pure embodiment of love. We are His children. We have an innate capacity to love and the more we want to become like our Heavenly Father, the more fully and purely we must love first, our Heavenly Father, second, ourselves and finally everyone else. Jesus commanded Peter, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:32). We can only love others to the degree that we love ourselves, we can only strengthen others to the degree that we are strong ourselves, we can only comfort others to the degree that we have peace within ourselves. It's like they say on Airplanes when they give the warning about the cabin depressurizing. You have to first put the oxygen mask on yourself, and then you will have the air you need to help those around you who are struggling. I hope we can all learn to embrace and love ourselves with the pure love of Christ, so that that love can flow through us freely and unimpeded into the lives of our neighbors.