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where the church gets it wrong...loving yourself

I desire open, honest, and nonjudgmental communication from all people and all views and all ideas. The words of my posts are simply my own thoughts on how the church* can fully be operational in Love.



“That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” ~ Luke 10:27  The Message

Growing up in a conservative church, I heard this verse plenty of times, usually with the emphasis on one of two parts. Either we were learning how to love God, or we were learning how to love others. 

That colored my thoughts, and therefore my actions, on what loving myself looked like. Turn the other cheek. Be a doormat. Put others needs ahead of my own. Love with no boundaries. Loving myself equaled being self-centered.

In these past few years, my understanding of this has changed, evolved into a place where I am beginning to comprehend just how revolutionary it is. I am grasping just how very much self love is good, and necessary, and holy. It's like a Sally Field moment, "The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me." Loving myself, liking  myself, fosters even more love for others.

Call me an idealist, but I believe that every problem facing us today has the same solution - love. abundant and freeing, overflowing and forgiving, intentionally invested, all in.
 
What if, instead of looking at the "sins" of people, the church begin to love them in such a way that says,"I get it. I get that we may not have shown you that yes, you are important, worthy of Love, my love, and especially, worthy of your own love. Let's mend these wounded places right now, right in the mess of all of this. You are good. You are loved. We don't see all of this stuff, we just see YOU."

We will only love others with the same love that we bestow upon ourselves. If we can't love ourselves in this manner, that is exactly why we can't love others correctly. 

There are people all around us crying out to know that loving their self is okay, that it isn't wrong or selfish. The lack of love for themselves is evident in how they treat their bodies, how they talk about themselves, in how they willingly harm themselves, time after time.

It has to stop. the church can stop it.
They have the answer.  
Love.









*When I say "church", I mean as a whole entity, not necessarily one denomination or actual building, etc.

*some other 'where the church gets it wrong' posts   
starbucks 
racism 
loving yourself
mental illness








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