The GREATEST Commandment

The GREATEST Commandment:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart, with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor AS yourself.”

During the weekend retreat, this verse really struck me because I had always seen it as loving God and loving others, but the last portion of it is really important and so often missed.  In the greatest commandment we are given a love mission: love God, love others AND love ourselves.  In fact we are supposed to get so good that the nature in which we love ourselves will become our model for loving others.  Here's three ways that I use to love myself.    

Avoid perfectionism and forgive yourself. Sometimes we are so ashamed of our pasts, of the mistakes we made, of the way we handled situations, of the way we treated others, of things that happened to us…  We think that our sin is so great that even if God forgives us we won’t forgive ourselves and we live our life punishing ourselves for not being perfect.  Remember that our value comes from God and He loves us so much that He died for our sins.  Though we all have our own imperfections in God we are new creations and have hope through daily conversion.  Every morning get up and thank God for creating you, praise Him by thanking Him for all of your strengths: “Thank you Lord, I am a (good, kind, happy, silly…) person thanks for making me this way.”  God doesn’t create garbage, but our sin keeps us from being perfect so we need to remember that flaws are a part of this world. Our idiosyncrasies just make us human and connect us to others if we allow it.

Know Yourself.  Spend time with yourself, learning what you need to lead a happy life and then take the actions to create that good life.  I know that I need eight hours of sleep or I won’t function to the best of my abilities.  I know that I need alone time to figure things out and to recharge my batteries.  I know that writing keeps me sane.  I know that without God or my Catholic faith my life is meaningless… All this self-knowledge influences my decisions and the way in which I live my life.  I live on purpose and I usually have a pretty good idea of how each of my days will be lived based on my needs and the choices I make to maintain a prayerful, peaceful, joyful, serviceful life.  When we learn who we are, what we value, what gives meaning and purpose to our lives we also learn the secret to lead happy lives in Christ.  I love spending time with myself so much that I constantly go on dates with me- not to toot my own horn, but I am really good company (smile)!

Let yourself be loved.  I have met many Christians that are wonderful lovers.  They lead sacramental lives honoring God they are of great assistance to their family, friends, their community…  They serve in ministries and just every action is filled with love as an expression of their attempt to fulfill the greatest commandment.  Yet, sometimes people that are used to giving are really bad at receiving.  When someone offers us a gift our willingness to accept is our gift to the giver.  If a person tells you they love you whether in an intimate relationship or a friendship accept it and don’t let your fears keep you from allowing that person to prove that it’s sincere.  Sometimes we are so afraid of hurt, rejection or loss that we create walls to keep us safe- but those walls keep us from some of the best experiences of life.  Open your heart and live in the present don’t listen to the negative voices from past failures.  We all have scars and some wounds that might still be healing, but God teaches us that love suffers long.  Love is not always a feeling of butterflies in your tummy- sometimes it hurts.  Jesus gave great testimony of sacrificial love- even though people hurt him deeply he never allowed toughness, cynicism or pride keep Him from receiving love.  He was so good at receiving it too.  When a woman washed his feet, he told his friends that he enjoyed the deep care and love which the woman demonstrated through her loving action.

I am the baby of my family so for me accepting love is usually not very difficult because I was given a lot of it growing up.  Yet, I have also been hurt and broken in my journey and many times I do want to recoil, refuse or question the loving action as my own protective mechanism, but God gives me the strength to go out into the world with courage, and hope not so much in others as in Him.  He tells us to look at the birds in the sky and even though they don’t sow, reap or gather God still provides for them abundantly- how much more will He do for us if we just let Him.