Mark 12:31 - The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." I have contemplated this verse for quite awhile trying to unpack its elements. What does loving you look like?
So, if our greatest call is to love God and love others how do we get to the point that we can authentically make this happen ~ love ourselves, first?
In loving ourselves first we have to accept God’s love through faith. Simple words … tough concept.
We have to understand that God loves us. He really, really loves us… simply because we are His children. While I do not have children as of yet, I do have friends with children as well as my own parents for reference and what I do know is that parents just love their kids. They do not require them to be perfect. They do not expect them to get things right all the time. They do not love them any less because they make mistakes, often. If we, in our carnal ability, can have this limitless love why do we think our heavenly Father is any different?
Somehow we have this preconceived notion that God can only love us when we have all our crap figured out. We have this unrealistic expectation of perfection that must be achieved before we can go to our Father and simply accept His love. How did we get it so twisted? We, often, have much more grace for someone who continues to hurt us time and again than we have for ourselves. Why?
I confess that I am certainly a product of this. I have let the enemy sit on my shoulder and endlessly rattle off all of my offenses (for that day and beyond) and walk away feeling defeated; feeling like I have messed up too much to even approach God. This is a lie! And, it is keeping me and us from our greatest calling.
Today ~ I challenge you to take one small step of faith; to let go of your faults (even for 60 seconds); to tell your Father that you love Him; and, then, go love another?