According to a verse in Proverbs 19:8 (KJV) - He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good.
The word "loveth his own soul" has a lot of meaning, but it also states that self-love is also important because God is love and love radiates within us if we have God in our life.
Loving oneself
A question often asked whenever we feel alone, insecure and sometimes in need of that tender loving care.
How do we love our self? Oftentimes, loving oneself can go overboard and narcissism becomes the beaming result.
However, the Bible clearly disagrees. Yes, God doesn't want us to be vain but vanity is different to self love. Vanity is a result of having "excessive" self-love while loving oneself is an act of acceptance and forgiveness, how so?
How many times have you forgiven yourself for that deadline that you haven't finished? How many times have you blamed yourself for something wrong that you did but still had the grudge inside your heart? How many times have you felt so sad because you just couldn't be enough to do the things that you want to do when you already reached your limits?
If you've already lost count, then I think you should consider giving yourself a break.
Sometimes, we get so caught up on what we are doing that we tend to forget to appreciate the little things.
How many times have you thanked God because He woke you up in the morning?
Self-love is important because anything that is over-worked can get burned out too. We are not machines; we are made imperfect but we can strive to be better.
How do we practice self-love?
It's easy, to be honest, and it's as easy as reciting John 3:16.
Because Jesus died for us and for our sins, He gave His life for us and He first loved us even before anything else. So how can we not love our self?
If we became the person that is filled with love, we can easily draw people near us. Love is a strong attribute. It can either make war or unite people.
It's so strong that sometimes, it is just too much to contain. But self-love is another thing because loving yourself is not always easy, but we must always remember that not all things can happen the way we want it to happen. Sometimes, God allows bad things to happen to see how we will react.
Will we still blame ourselves or will we just forgive, move on and do better next time?
Always remember, whenever you're in doubt of loving yourself, God first loved us and it may not be easy, but He did and He succeeded.
The key to everything is forgiveness, because forgiveness breeds happiness and happiness breeds love.
