What Does Loving You Look Like?

Christians love to quote this command from Jesus:

“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.’”

Matthew 22:37-39

The first command, loving others, has been the subject of numerous sermons. We are all about loving others. But, the second, loving yourself, gets bypassed. We don’t want to talk about loving ourselves. We think loving ourselves is self-centered and conceited. We sometimes speak poorly of others who me feel think to highly of themselves.

What does loving you look like?

Caring for you is not self-indulgence. Loving yourself is self-preservation. Self-preservation is not depending on someone else for your own love. Loving and caring for yourself is an act of spiritual warfare. Being full of love for yourself will allow you to be whole and capable of loving others.

You cannot love others if you do not love yourself.

You cannot give someone something you do not have. Let me explain. If your neighbor comes to the door and asks you for a cup of sugar, you cannot give them a cup of sugar if you do not have any sugar in the kitchen. If someone asks you for a cup of water, you can’t give it to them if you have no water.

Therefore, you cannot love others if you do not love yourself.

We should love ourselves in all areas of our life.                                        

Loving Your Body

Love your body by feeding it healthy and clean food. Giving your body loving fuel to keep it in optimum health is a way to show yourself love. Loving your body is probably the easiest of the three areas. We think of loving our bodies with a massage, a facial, or some other event. While these experiences are vital, a daily love for our bodies is just as important.

Try looking in the mirror every morning and telling yourself you love your body. Appreciating your body is a good first step to loving your body. Your body allows you to do everything in life. If you don’t quite love everything about your body, you can change it! Go about changing your body and make it all it can be.

Exercise can help you love your body and your mind. Consistent exercise helps change your body externally. Exercise has also shown to help our psychology. 

Loving Your Mind

Love your mind by creating challenges, goals, and a reason to get up every day. Reading books and expanding your horizons make life exciting. Make a goal of learning something new every day. Don’t depend on Google for all your information. Explore new ideas and new concepts.

Loving Your Spirit

Love who you are. If you don’t like who you are, then change. Be authentic and congruent with your thoughts. Are you feeding your spirit positive and loving thoughts? Or, are you feeding your thoughts a diet of anger, fear, and anxiety?

Only you are responsible for loving yourself. Work daily to make sure you love yourself so you can love others.