‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:39 (NKJV)
We have been commanded to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. The words Jesus used to convey this commandment are powerful because they imply that it is actually impossible for you to truly love someone else if you cannot love yourself. Think about it: how can you develop good, healthy relationships if you don’t even like yourself and you wonder why anyone else would?
Many people feel that the Christian thing to do is to take care of everyone else, putting their own needs on the back-burner. Although being the martyr in this way seems godly, it isn’t.
Let me give you an example. If Satan can keep a mom from loving herself, he prevents her from having the kind of relationship God wants her to have with her kids. Wearing herself thin causes her to become
grouchy and irritable. The fatigue and frustration she experiences causes her to say or do things that damage her relationships.
At the same time, a mom who doesn’t value herself influences her sons to make wrong assumptions about how women should be treated, and she causes her daughters to disrespect themselves in a similar way. The cycle continues to another generation. The best thing she can do for her kids is to model healthy self-respect.
Learning to love and accept the ‘you’ that God made you to be will cause every relationship you have to improve.
Are you willing to give those you love the gift of first loving yourself?