All you need is LoVe

     Lately I feel as though every time I turn around there is something about love in front of me.  Pinterest is full of pins about how to love your husband, how to love your kids, how to love your body, and on and on.  I have had several conversations with girlfriends about how to love others better.  I have had a conversation with my husband about how he receives love and feels loved.  But if I were being honest with myself many, if not all, of these conversations that stemmed around how to love others better were simply ways to get others to love me more.  I know that seems convoluted, but bear with me.  I want to know how to love Travis, my husband, better so that he will feel loved and feel like he should love me more.  I want to know how to love my neighbor better so that whoever notices will think higher of me and love me.  Most of the things I do during my day are either directly, or indirectly, serving and loving myself.  Strange and humbling realization to say the least.  
     Jesus says in Matthew to "love your neighbor as yourself".  You see the Bible already assumes that we love ourselves.  Even if we say that we don't love ourselves well, that statement reveals that we think we should love ourselves more and others should love us more, and in a way that is loving ourselves.  We say things like, "I need to take some time for me, to love me".  We already love ourselves enough to clothe ourselves, feed ourselves, get rest for our bodies, exercise, etc.  All Jesus is saying here is that we should do the same for our neighbors.  He is not saying that self loathing is the way to live.  He is saying we already do things for ourselves that we can do for others.  You clothe yourself, clothe others.  You feed yourself, feed others.  You give yourself grace, give grace to others.  Most of the rules we use to judge others are rules that we, ourselves, don't even live by!  So my challenge from God this morning was this:  feeling anxious about something? Serve someone else;  feeling depressed by a situation in your life?  Love someone else.   If I could spend half of the time I spend thinking about myself and all of the ways I want to be loved, thinking of how to love someone else I would reach thousands of people with Jesus' love.  So there it is, my truest conviction, my current and perhaps unending struggle to love others the way that Jesus commands, the way I love myself.  

Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me Your love for humanity
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see