Self-Love (Part 1)
O God,
“Love your neighbor as yourself,” your Son taught us.
But how are we to love ourselves?
So much of our self-love is such that we need to repent of it—it is motivated by selfishness, by fear, by narrow-mindedness, by greed, and by arrogance.
Perhaps, then, the first step in loving ourselves is being honest about ourselves; perhaps it is acknowledging that we are sinners, that we are flawed, and that we are limited.
If we can see ourselves as we really are, if we can accept ourselves as we really are, and if we can love ourselves as we really are—not as we imagine ourselves to be and not as we wish ourselves to be—we will have made an initial move toward seeing, accepting, and loving our neighbors not as we wish they were but as they really are.
Help us to move that way …
Amen.
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