“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” We often forget that one of the “least of these” that Christ refers to is ourselves. How we treat ourselves is also how we treat our Savior. If we string ourselves up and flog ourselves with all kinds of self-loathing and shaming, not in an effort to feel some kind of remorse and godly sorrow but simply out of some misguided assumption that we are not worthy of love or mercy or compassion, then not only are we mistreating ourselves to no purpose, but we are inflicting that same pain and suffering on our Savior. Not only do we all have an inner child, but for all intents and purposes, that child is indistinguishable from Christ. If we are ever torturing ourselves because we feel that we are beyond saving and we don't want to cause any more pain to our Savior than we already have, we are not accomplishing what we set out to do. If we want to be kind to our Savior, then we first have to be kind to ourselves.
