Loving Yourself

Have you ever thought about what it means to love yourself? 

. . .‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ . . . 

Mark 12:30

It seems like this verse would be good justification for a shopping spree, or a day at the spa, or just some serious "me" time . . . but is that what it is saying??


Is it possible to love yourself and deny yourself? (Luke 9:23)


My Dad recently came up with a good definition for what it means to love yourself. Since "love" is defined as "finding your joy in someone or something", then "loving yourself" can be defined as "finding joy in God's design of who I am". How many people do you know that aren't happy with the way God made them? It always makes me sad to hear kids and teens complain about the color of their hair or eyes, etc.


So as you can see, with that definition of loving yourself, you can definitely deny yourself. I would go so far as to say that you will have a very hard time denying yourself if you don't love yourself! And the same is true for loving our neighbor . . . loving yourself is so important!


Here's another "trick" question for you . . .


Can you not love yourself and yet be a lover of your own self, as it talks about in 2 Timothy 3:2? . . . .  :0)