It’s simple: we must have self-love before we can love anyone else. Am I speaking of thinking more highly of oneself than one should? Definitely no! On the other hand, we should not devalue our self-worth. Do you know why some women allow themselves to remain in abusive relationships or allow blatant mistreatment towards them? Their self-esteem is low, and they don’t value themselves or love themselves as they should. Hence, it isn’t easy to love others if we do not love ourselves. There is a song that Shirley Murdock sings that says, “I love me better than that.” Those words speak volumes. “I Love Me!” so I won’t tolerate being devalued by anyone.
Despite the many things we encounter in our life span, we all have an innate desire to feel the love of others. We also want to love because God first loved us. When we love ourselves, we feel good about ourselves regardless of the money, status, job, or material things we own. Love goes beyond those things. Furthermore, external things do not equal love. Some individuals have a lot of wealth but are unhappy with their lives. Each day we wake up, we should acknowledge our love of God and love ourselves enough to love someone else. Regardless of what is happening in my life, “I Love Me!” and you should love yourself!
In short, never allow anyone to cause you to feel you have no self-worth or only use you to their advantage. In relationships, it is easy sometimes to succumb to the needs of someone and put yours on the back burner. Should we unselfishly do what we can to bring joy to someone we are in a relationship with, be it personal, marital, family, etc? Yes, but when you continue to give, give, give with no return, does that equal self-love? It does not. We get what we accept. Therefore, my sisters give love to others, but remember, charity begins at home. Love yourself so you can be whole and love someone else. “I Love Me!” This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matthew 22:38-39. I’ll return next week with a new post, “Quantity or Quality?”
Be encouraged, and God bless!
Sister Jackie