i discovered the writings of emily wierenga last week via sarah bessey's international women's day sychroblog. on her own site, emily has issued a challenge to fellow writers to participate weekly with her in "a dare to love yourself." her posts thus far have been beautiful, & since my 2013 theme is love, it has really hit home to me along with other various aspects of love that i've been pondering & learning.
i had long forgotten how to f.l.y. it's an acronym that i spent a semester teaching to college girls at our weekly bible study -- finally loving yourself. i taught this to others, & yet, i have forgotten how to live it myself. ouch.
i loved this quote from emily:
Until you learn to like the way your left ear hangs lower than your right; the way you limp a little when you walk, or the way you snort out laughter; until you learn to say "Thank you" to your body for bearing your babies and for carrying you through life and for pumping oxygen through your veins, you'll never be able to truly love another person.
i agree wholeheartedly.
Jesus taught love as the greatest command(s):
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:37-40]
i've often heard this simplified as "love God & love others." as i've been reading about agape so far this year, these are the words that have echoed over & over in my mind. but conspicuously absent have been Jesus' words about loving myself... if He said i need to love others as i love myself, what happens when i don't really love myself? [this was the premise of that bible class i taught so many years ago.]
it's been so long since i've thought about loving myself, i'm not even sure where to start! years ago, a trusted counselor told me to experiment with treating myself like i was my own mother. what time would she wake me up in the morning? what would she make me for breakfast? what clothes would she lay out for me? how would she take care of me? she suggested i do those very things. what a revolutionary concept: to take care of myself. i think that's the beginning of self-love. even if i don't feel like it, if i go through the motions of the experiment, the feelings will eventually follow the actions. it's true in so many other areas of life, & i believe it to be true here, too.
like emily, i'll be posting for the next several mondays on this topic. next week, i want to talk about taking care of yourself, what it means, what it doesn't mean, how to do it, what to do when you don't feel like it, & how changing your actions changes your mind & heart.
may God teach us how to love ourselves so that we can more fully love Him & others.
4 comments:
oh danae, i'm so glad you're joining us in this dare! the verse you mentioned, it's what got me thinking too... the church somehow seems to frown on self-love, yet how can we effectively love someone else if we don't love ourselves? beautiful. i look forward to reading the rest of your posts in the Mondays to come. (ps. i found your post linked at my Imperfect Prose meme, which I do every Wednesday/Thursday... the Dare to Love meme for this week was here: http://www.emilywierenga.com/2013/03/a-dare-to-love-yourself-in-which-i.html)
so glad you found Emily and have connected with us at IP! i look forward to getting to know you, friend.
thank, emily! my sister has always been outspoken about how we need to focus on our strengths & not just our weaknesses, something the church is not great at doing. these conversations with her & my experience counseling teens has taught me so much about the need for self-love.
glad you stopped by, kelli! see you soon in the blogosphere!
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