I was at a worship training this week, and our leader said something profound. She said, “The Bible says ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ How do we love others if we don’t love ourselves?”
This reminded me of Sari’s testimony. I loved the part at the end where her therapist asked “Would you ever tell a little girl that their emotions are too much, that they’re annoying, that she’s not loved and that she doesn’t matter?” When Sari said no, then she asked, “Then why do we do that to ourselves?”
This also ties into something I heard a while ago: “I just want you to know that I am a wonderful person.” When this speaker said that at a conference, everyone was shocked and her translator told her “Pastor, you can’t say that”, to which she responded (if I remember correctly), “Why not? I am a wonderful person. Made in the image of God. We all are.”
As I was reflecting on Sari’s testimony, I rephrased her question to, “Would you ever tell anyone that they did an awful, or mediocre job, especially when they did amazing?” I don’t think so. However, I can see that although we are great at dishing out praise, we often brush it off when it comes our way. “Oh, it was nothing. Yeah, it wasn’t too bad.”
The second example is a great illustration of how we tend to be painfully humble/bashful when it comes to praise about ourselves. I know we’re trying not to sound stuck up or prideful, but really, can we take a compliment instead of deflecting it?
As much as I want to say we have to love ourselves the way we love others, we cannot give what we do not have or practice. We know what love is because God loves us. We love others because God loves us. But will we love ourselves because God loves us?
There’s so many ways to love ourselves, but in this case, loving ourselves looks like encouraging ourselves. Remember, God loves us so much and is so proud of what we’ve done and how far we’ve come, mistakes and all, and we should treat ourselves the way He does.