Loving Others As Yourself

Loving Others As Yourself by Tabitha D               4.6.12

And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  No other commandment is greater than these.”  -Mark 12:30-31

Since truly getting to know God loving him has been a no brainer.  The first part of this command was easy as pie, but it was the second part, which stopped me dead in my tracks.  Not because I couldn't love others, but in order to truly love them I had to love them as I loved myself.  That was a problem for me, because up until my daughter was born I deeply disliked myself.  I won't delve into whom or what even lead me to this, but I will say it was alive and breathing within me daily.

Everyone would always comment on how beautiful my daughter is and she is, but it didn't register that I was beautiful as well.  Until one day my aunt said, "Jo is so beautiful! Girl, she looks just like you!"  I went home and stared in my mirror and it hit me!  My daughter is amazingly beautiful and if she looks just like me I must be amazingly beautiful as well.

That lifted me up for a few years until I did some things that now lead me to dislike myself from the inside.  Manipulation and selfish behavior made not for a beautiful woman.  I knew my behavior was wrong, but still believed I was justified by what others had done to me.  What did I learn?  Two wrongs will NEVER make a right.

I guess God couldn't take any more because he stepped in and made his presence KNOWN.  He sat me in front of his spiritual mirror and showed me how he had envisioned my life going.  He showed me my faults and it was painful.  As time went on I began to desire to be more like Jesus.  I wanted to look like him, love like him, speak like him and live like him.  That prayer started coming to life and with each new day I fell in love with the new me.  I learned just how much God truly loved me and that lead me to truly loving myself.  The me that He wants me to be is alive and she's flourishing daily.

How could I not love myself when I'm walking in the very footsteps of my Lord and Savior?  Today I can completely love others as I love myself, because God has released the real me from darkness.  Every day I pray and declare that I will love and see everyone as our heavenly Father does.  At first I stumbled, but now I do it with great ease.  All because my Father showed up and showed me how to truly walk out Mark 12:31