The Bible says for us to “love our neighbors as we love ourselves." The first part is often thought to be easier than the second and so that is the way many of us were brought up. We may have been told that it is better to give than receive and yet we struggle with that because we want to receive and of course, we want to give. It all can get so confusing emotionally and yet these are such simply written edicts, aren’t they?

Loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Look how that has turned out as we look around the world at historical and current events. It might often seem that we are certainly not loving our neighbors, nor giving to them in joy, but so focused on our own desires and needs that we step in front of them and manipulate them to our imagined benefit in hopes of getting our needs met.

And so, I was thinking that the second part need really be the first part. As we love ourselves, we have the capacity and experience to love our neighbors. It seems that it must be this way. How could we love others without loving ourselves?