Love God, Love Others, Love YOU

Over the last few weeks, I think God has been trying to send me a message. This verse has seemed to find it's way into my life many times.

Matthew 22:37-39
'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.

At first I thought, "Ok God, I am going to make you more important. I am going to focus on you. I will spend more time with you. I will get off my computer, and instead of reading blogs I will read my Bible, devotionals, Christian books, etc... I will spend time in prayer and worshiping you."

While, YES, I do think that that first thought was important (and I am still working on that), the verse still kept coming back to me.

I told God, "I get it. I get it. More of you! Less of me!"
But then I think God said to me, "Yes, you get the first part. However....what about that second part...."

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

I love others. Honestly, I know that I do a lot for others. I even fully know and admit that I am a people pleaser. I thought that I had the "love your neighbor" thing down!

I realized, I think I am suppose to be thinking about the 2nd part of the 2nd part.

Love Yourself.

Hm...

I, like a lot of women, struggle with the whole insecurity issue. I guess that is why God is telling me that I need to love myself....

I need to love all those things about myself that I get all self conscious about.

God made me the this way on purpose. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. He knows me and He loves me just the way I am. Therefore, I need to love what He created me to be.

Ok, that is part of it.

Then I realized that I need to also love who I am.

I am the wife of Josh
I am the stay at home mommy of a beautiful 2yr old who is as sweet as she can be.
I have a cute little white house with blue shutters in a nice neighborhood
I drive a Ford Explorer
I have a closet full of clothes
I am a friend, a daughter, a member of Elevation Church......

I think that sometime it is easy for me to look at what others around me have (their houses, their clothes, their friends, their vacations, their Friday night plans) and I start to focus on who they are.

Instead of doing that, I need to love and be thankful to God for what He has given to me, and WHO he has made me to be.

So, I am going to first of all, continue to put my focus on loving God with all of my heart and with my life. I am also going to continue to love others. It is something that I enjoy, and have a heart for. But I am also going to work on loving who God made me to be and what He has blessed me with.

Mark 12:33 (The Message)
"God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that's better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!"