LEARN THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF LOVE FOR YOUR FAITH

How many times have you heard people talking about the importance of learning to love yourself? Has it become like hearing background chatter? Maybe you no longer hear the words, or maybe you do not let the words really sink in.
For some, it is like hearing your mom say, “eat your vegetables” when you were a child. It is in one ear and out the other. But the reality is that learning to love yourself is so important.
When you are on a plane before take off, the flight attendant talks about securing your own oxygen mask first before helping anybody else. The reason they say this is because if you are not getting oxygen yourself, then you are not going to be conscious to be able to secure anybody else’s mask.

This also applies when learning to love yourself. If you are not able to give yourself the love that you so truly deserve and need, how are you going to give it to another?
Many people were not loved like they should have been during childhood and into adulthood. If this was the case for you, how would you know how to love yourself? Most of the time, learning to love yourself is not easy and cannot always be self-taught if you were never given the love you needed during formative years.
Sometimes allowing others to love you until you learn what it is like to love yourself works. Allowing God to love you and opening your heart to that love is going to be very important as well.

Learning to love ALL of yourself is difficult. This means body, mind, soul. Yes, all of yourself. For many people, learning to love your body is a challenge. We live in a time where having the perfect body and “look” is idealized. Billions of dollars are spent advertising what we “should” look like. If you do not fit into that mould of how you “should” or “should not” look, this is where we, as a society, get into trouble.
Learning to shut the chatter off from the outside world and love yourself for who you are today is what’s important. The fact is that there is no perfect. Everybody has been created differently, and most importantly, in God’s image.
Start a new recording in your head that you are beautiful and perfect no matter what you look like and what kind of body you have. This will not be easy, but starting a positive dialogue with yourself is going to be a first step. Get rid of that self judgment.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” ~ Psalm 139: 13-15

God Wants You to Love Yourself, Too
Having a successful faith life is going to start with you learning to love yourself. This does not mean we are worshiping ourselves or being narcissistic.
God does not want us to go through our lives filled with hate, disappointment, or insecurities about ourselves. God has created us perfectly in His image. In this day and age, it is difficult not to compare ourselves to others or the idea of what we should look like. God designed you and made you perfectly the way you are, and He loves you just that way.

Working through the issues that have caused you to not love yourself will not be easy work, but it will be worth it. Imagine living a life with the scope of what God wants for you and not the shades of self hatred. Learning to love yourself matters because you matter, you are loved and you are blessed.