Love Yourself; Love one another as you love yourself.

Love one another as you love yourself. The greatest command and my verse for this year. I have thought about this verse for many years. And this thought has always popped into my mind: how can you love another when you DON’T LOVE YOURSELF?

I mean, seriously. 

We are called to love one another. Jesus called it one of the 2 greatest commands in all of scripture. In all the rules and the 10 commandments. It boils down to these 2 statements:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength.”

And

“Love one another as you love yourself.”

I hated myself. 

Like so many of us, in these days, I hated myself. 

So how in the world could I truly love another when I didn’t love myself? 

This month, my coach has been taking a group of us through some 2026 planning and goal setting. As a part of that, we have been looking at ourselves. Not in a self-centered sort of way. 

Rather, in a reflective honest observation of ourselves in the past. We talked about so many aspects of our lives in 2025. One of the things that struck me most was when we talked about being “All-In” for ourselves. I realized that I have not been that person for myself that I would be for almost anyone else in my life. 

Why not?? 

Good question.

There are lots of thoughts I have about that. But I want to skip that, because we all have experienced this, hating ourselves and not being all in. 

In my quiet time this week, I felt like I needed to read Scripture. I haven’t opened my Bible in a few weeks, so I opened it. The first page that I popped open to was Proverbs. I could see on the right the number 20 for the chapter. I decided to start reading at the top of the page on the left. And I stopped after that one verse. 

This is what it said: 

Proverbs 19:8

“The one who acquires good sense[a] loves himself;
One who safeguards understanding finds success.”

The one who acquires good sense LOVES HIMSELF.

The one who has HEART loves his own life, in other versions. 

God says it’s not good sense to not love yourself. And we don’t love ourselves. We don’t value ourselves. We don’t love one another because how can we love one another if we can’t love ourselves??!!!

My word this year is LOVE. I guess it starts with me. I go first. 

Father, please forgive me for rejecting good sense and hating myself. I repent of hating myself. I am choosing today to accept good sense. I am choosing today to love myself. Thank you, Father God, for giving me a heart for myself. A heart that is FOR ME. Not against. I choose to have a heart for me so that I can love others as I love myself. Not in a self-centered, narcissistic way. But in a way that loves myself and honors the good sense you gave me. So that I can truly love others. 

Thank you, Father. Amen.