Do I Love Me?

Do I love me?

Sounds like a selfish question, but it is not. Often we look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, as the love chapter for others, but it is supposed to start with us…you and me. The reality is that if I can’t love myself, I can’t love another fully and correctly. If I constantly pour myself out or keep others first, I will deplete or give what I don’t have eventually. If I continually pour into another, it will hurt me because it will create an emotional gap. Even if I’m following 1 Corinthians 13 to the best of my ability, but don’t apply it first and foremost to me, I will eventually die or create a grave for myself emotionally.

Your inner gal needs to be nurtured. She needs to know that you love her and that means that you give her the time and attention that she needs. To love me is to stop and to ask, what is it that I need today emotionally? What am I missing in the rush of doing life? Am I really balanced inside or am I teetering?

Often, we pray and ask God to heal different parts of our soul and then wait. But, that’s not how God works. He always provides guidelines on how to heal. He requires that we take certain steps and certain actions in order to heal. Often, those steps are really hard. No one likes hard, but isn’t that how we grow?

God loves you too much to keep you where you’re at. He loves you too much to keep you at a place of disappointment, of hurt and of depletion. He wants so much for you.

God wants abundance and yet many of us live in the shadow of fullness. We don’t live wholly because the picture that we have painted for ourselves is that of a sacrificial gal. We say, “God will be pleased with us because we serve, because we are women who give of ourselves and because this is what is expected of us.” This picture that has been painted for many of us is far from the truth. God wants us to serve the most important person in our lives first…ourselves.

The question is…do you love yourself enough to do that?