To love oneself is a statement that, at one point, wasn’t true in my own life. I wasn’t one who always loved myself. But we have to love ourselves before…..

We read in Matthew 22;37-39 of the two greatest commandments.

37 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).                                                                                                                                                                 38 This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.                                                           39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. (AMPC)

We see the first; we are to love God, then our neighbor. But when we read closely about loving our neighbor, it says, as you do yourself. We can’t love our neighbor if we don’t love ourselves, and we can’t love ourselves if we don’t love God, and we can’t love God if we don’t know of His love.  

I hated myself. I despise myself. I believed I was a mistake and wasn’t wanted. I thought I had nothing to offer or was of worth or value to anyone. I believed that no one wanted me around. And those thoughts led to thoughts thinking I was better off dead. It’s not the right place to be in.  

There are stories of different precious individuals who have taken their own lives because they have believed these similar lies of themselves. They are robbing themselves of living a complete experience here on this earth, fulfilling their destiny, and looting their loved ones to be with them for a while longer.  

 I am sitting here pondering how devastated I would be if one of my children had these thoughts. It would hurt me to know they believe they aren’t loved and wanted. In my imperfect love (which is perfect through Jesus) and desires, I would be able to help them as much as I could and re-enforced how much I love them, want them, and desire for them to be all they can be and live a healthy, successful life.  

How much more does God desire for us to believe in His Love? 

 Then my thoughts turn to remembrance of couple scriptures. One is Luke 11:13 (AMPC)

If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts [gifts [a]that are to their advantage] to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and [b]continue to ask Him!

The other one is 1 John 4:7-21  (AMPC) especially in verse 8,

“God is Love”

Then I thought of more scriptures.  Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the right things he planned for us long ago.

My children are my masterpiece, a creation between their father and me. They were created in our likeness. They have our DNA.  

If they are abusing themselves with thoughts of lies and believing less of themselves, they are destroying my art – my masterpiece, my precious creation that is part of me. Hurting my love for them, I never knew how much you could love someone until I gave life to these precious treasures of my heart.  

Think of how much God loves us. His love is so much more profound, significant, and substantial beyond what we can fully comprehend.  

My love for my children is only a glimpse of God’s love for us. My love for my children is just a tip-of-the-tongue taste of God’s love for His children, each of us, including you and me, my sister, and our families. 

I was destroying God’s masterpiece while I was listening to and believing the lies from the enemy of my self-worth. 

Satan comes to destroy us because we are God’s masterpiece. We read in John 10:10, the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy..…  

 1 Peter 5:8 tells us,  Be well-balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [[a]in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour. (AMPC)

I had opened up the door for satan to come to seize upon me and devour me with his lies, and he almost destroyed me.  

I wasn’t balanced, in a sober mind, trusting and believing God’s truth and seeking His love’s revelation.

Satan saw a weak point in me where I had felt and believed I was abandoned and rejected due to a traumatic birth I experienced when I entered into this world and the insecurities I was enduring because of some disabilities I was dealing with.  

I wasn’t mature enough to keep myself guarded and aware of how he operated to protect me.  

I allowed myself to get sucked into his lies about my self-worth, for, after all, I believed I was not wanted. I did not realize the truth of being wanted and loved by my Heavenly Father.  

Satan took this opportunity in my naivety of God’s truth and tried to destroy me.  

But be of good cheer, for I have overcome the enemy’s lies. Though there are times he still tries to plant some lies about my self-worth, it doesn’t faze me anymore. I laugh at him and thank the Lord for His love.  

How do we love ourselves? 

I am glad you asked, for I will explain how I learned to love myself in the next post, “How do we love ourselves?” Scheduled for next week.  

So join me next week to learn how to love yourself.