Love thy neighbor

'Love thy neighbor as thyself' does not mean that you first need to learn to love yourself before you can learn to love others. Because, let's face it, we already do love ourselves. If we didn't love ourselves, we wouldn't eat, we wouldn't sleep, we wouldn't even shower. It's because we love ourselves that we know we need food for nourishment, sleep for regerneration, and showers because it's not fun to be stinky.

Loving myself is the easy part. It's loving others that can be difficult, especially when they're in a spot in life that's hardly lovely, like rebellion.

It takes a concious effort to pray for those who get on my nerves, to pray for those who've hurt me or my loved ones, to pray for those who are going in the complete wrong direction and can't even see it. But it's by Christ that I am able to love them. It's His love working in my heart that shows me "Hey, they are still my child. I formed them, I blew breath into their body. I love them."

Then there's always the gentle reminder of how I looked before I was saved -- a complete and total mess. Thinking I had it all together, thinking I had all of the answers. Boy, was I wrong.

Lord, lead me down this path, show me how to love. Love through me.