The world has begun preaching to teens, mommas & anyone really, that you need to love yourself more. You need more self confidence. It just takes scrolling through Instagram for a moment too see it everywhere. I can't tell you how many new years resolutions on social media included 'I want to love myself more' 'be sweeter to myself' 'take time for self love'. Goodness gracious, its all a little silly.
If you think about it for a moment, when you have a toothache, headache or any kind of pain or discomfort, what's our immediate reaction? Where's the Advil!? Anyone have Tylenol? We want it GONE. However if someone else has a toothache,... eh maybe you'd suggest going to the dentist, but really its not such a big deal because we aren't feeling the pain our self.
Why is that?
Because we LOVE our self. Always looking out for number one is our human nature. We already love our own body more than anyone else naturally. The reason we get hurt feelings is not because we hate ourselves, but more because we love ourselves. We want to be loved and cherished. Our most common problem is not our ‘lack of self confidence’ but more a wrong view of God and who He is.
Now I know that many DO struggle with feeling worthless. I definitely had a period of wallowing in sadness and focusing on everything about myself that I hated for a time. But the truth is, if you are a child of God you are created in His image.
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:27
He loves you so incredibly much. There is no need to sit in self pity and worthlessness, because to HIM you are worth so much.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
1 John 3:1
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us...
Ephesians 2:4
So very much that He sent His only son to die on a cross, so that your sin would be paid for and you could be reconciled with God once again.
For God so loved the world He sent His one and only son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
But to fully understand His love for us, we first need to understand what we are. We are sinners. Wretched sinners. Now if your thinking, mmm, hold up I'm not that bad. I've never killed anyone,... lets look at what sin is shall we ?
God tells His people:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself Mark 12: 30-31
You shall not take the Lords name in vain
Remember the sabbath day and keep it Holy
Honour your Father and your Mother
You shall not murrder
You shall not commit adultery
(everyone who looks at a woman (or man) with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:28
You shall not steal
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor ( Lie)
You shall not covet (Jealousy)
Deuteronomy 5
So can any of us say we have never lied, or been jealous, or looked at someone lustfully? How about, have we ever failed too spend every moment loving God with our WHOLE heart and mind and soul? YES. None of us have completed this list, because we are all sinners. We all love ourselves far more then we ought too, and we cannot experience the goodness of God's love by telling each other to 'love yourself more'.
Jesus tells us too "love your neighbor as yourself" He knows we already love ourselves. He wants us to bestow on others the love and care we naturally give ourselves.
Lets stop telling each other that the problem is we need more self love, and lets point each other to our HOLY Father who loves us so much more then we could ever imagine.