Love

Ah Valentine's Day...a day where love is the main thing on people's mind.  It's funny because really love should be the main thing on our mind all of the time. 

I was thinking about love and all that stuff today and I had a few thoughts.  My thoughts first went to the fact that before there was love, there was God.  He didn't just create love, He didn't just create the emotions and feelings that go with love, but He IS love.  The only reason that we experience love is because there is a God who IS love.  It's pretty simple yet it's a hard concept to really grasp.

After this realization comes acceptance.  I believe that for many people it's hard to accept love, especially God's love.  A lot of that is due to the misrepresentations of love that we see on a daily basis.  Maybe it's due to the abuse of love, the perversion of love, and the withholding of love that we have experienced.  I can see how it's hard to accept a father's love when we've experienced this.  However, the majority of the time we are accepting or not accepting love based on these misrepresentations.  God though, is not a representation of love, He is love.

After acceptance comes the giving of love.  You would think this would be easy too.  Especially if you have a tarnished view of receiving love, you want to make sure that as you give love you don't make the same mistakes that others have made.  Unfortunately, we forget that our ability to give love is based on our ability to accept love for ourself.  I think it would be easier if Jesus had said in Matthew, "And the second is like this, Love your neighbor" but He had to throw in "as yourself."  The meaning is that it's impossible to truly love your neighbor if you are not able to accept and receive the love that God has for you.

So this Valentine's Day...I encourage you to love yourself.  Don't love yourself based on your accomplishments or feelings but love yourself based simply on the acceptance that God IS love and that He loves you.  As you accept that in every area of your life, you will notice a geniune love for others will come out of you.

D.