It’s a decision really, the choice to love your neighbor,your friend, your family, yourself. There are many people who you cross paths with in the span of your life. The cashier, the UPS man ( hello Amazon), the beggar, the church member. Are you leaving a legacy of love? You cross paths with yourself every day. Do you make the choice to love yourself? How can you fully love anyone else, if you don’t first choose to love God and then who He created you to be?

As women we focus on everything that is wrong with us. We have an eye for detail. A keen sense of criticism is bestowed upon us everyday, courtesy of Satan. So how do we push aside those invasive thoughts that penetrate our fiber?

Close your eyes and surround yourself with Christ. Feel His presence. See Him in your children’s laugh. See Him in a majestic sunset. See Him in the way your husband protects you. Cry out to the One that longs to hear from you. That loved you before you were formed. That loved you when you turned your back on Him. That loved you through the tears. That loved you enough to send His Son.

You are probably thinking that I don’t understand. You are right. I don’t. I will never fully understand what it is like to walk in your shoes. The Great Comforter does though. Hurt is a part of this sinful world. It is no respecter of persons. No one is immune. It is not part of God’s plan for us to be beat down, incapable of loving.

Most of us would be ashamed to love our neighbors as ourselves. Could you imagine inviting over a friend and telling them the same things you tell yourself everyday? No one can stand you. You are so ugly. Your voice is annoying. No one cares what you have to say. I can’t believe you dress that way. Can’t you just be quiet. You need to lose some more weight. Your makeup looks terrible. Your family despises you.

Pretty harsh, right? Why do we do that everyday? If Satan can trick us into becoming a partaker in his lies, then we are broken. Not able to fully use our own unique personality for Him. We must shift our focus.

Choose to focus on the good things, the true things. God wants us to love Him. He sees our struggles, our negative thoughts, our downtrodden faces. Our victory is through Him. Take off Satan’s blinders and see yourself the way God sees you. Jesus said, unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Matthew 22:37-39

© Kelly Comeaux, Chipped Vessel