Loving Yourself and Others

Last time I posted I had just arrived in Indianapolis for a conference called Seek. At this conference, we had the opportunity to hear many amazing speakers. Throughout the day there were several talks going on, and we were able to choose which ones we wanted to attend. It was day 2, and I was looking at the talks for the day, when I saw the title of the talk I knew I had to attend: “Love Yourself: A How To.” 

This talk was given by Chris Stefanick. He spoke of the many lies that we tell ourselves, and then of the truth from the Word of God that directly rebukes those lies. He told us a story about a little girl with autism, whose parents told her that, because she is the daughter of a King, she is a princess. This little girl fully believed what her parents told her, and every time she would meet someone new she’d say “Hi, I’m a princess!” One day, she looked at her mom and said, “You’re wearing a crown, you just don’t see it.” My eyes welled up with tears, and I felt the Lord speaking this directly to my heart. 

I am no stranger to self-hatred and insecurities. These are probably some of the biggest things I struggle with. And according to the amount of people who showed up for this talk, I’m not the only one. These things can be the biggest thieves of joy when we let them. I know that being insecure has kept me, and unfortunately continues to keep me, from doing many things. 

During prayer in adoration, I envisioned myself giving my heart to Jesus. When I looked at the heart that I was offering Him, it was in pretty rough shape. There were large bruises and wounds all over. In the little cracks between the bruises, there was bright light shining through. It was obvious that the bruises were covering up the light of my heart. I began to think about how those bruises got there. I realized that some of them were put there from others. These ones started off small, and became larger from me constantly poking at them. I also realized that many of the bruises on my heart were caused by myself. They were caused from my constant beating and pounding on my own heart for every. little. thing. I also saw the many times the Lord tried to heal my heart, and I didn’t let Him heal it entirely. I’d give Him some things, but others I would keep from Him entirely. Sometimes He would start to heal a bruise, but I’d start poking and beating at it again, and it would grow back to being the large, aching wound it began as. I realized I was not letting the Lord fully heal my heart. This was kind of a shock to me, as that thought had never even crossed my mind before. These bruises were obviously covering up a great light in me. The light of Christ that He wanted to use to reveal Himself to others through me. And this great light is inside all of us. 

Each and every one of us is a new way that the Lord is revealing Himself to the world. We are all His handiwork, His creation, His masterpieces. God created everything – He made light and saw that it was “good,” he made water and plants and saw that they were “good,” God created the sun and the moon and the stars and saw that they were “good,” He created living things and saw that they were “good.” Then God created man, and he saw that man was “very good.” God created the entire universe, but it was only when He looked at Man did He see His creation as “very good.” We are made in His image and likeness. To grow closer to God is to grow closer to our true selves. If we all saw ourselves the way that God saw us, this would allow us to see others as God sees them as well. If we can’t even see Christ in ourselves, how are we to be expected to see Him in others? Pope Benedict XVI (who at the time was just Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) suggests in his book, “Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures,” that the way that we look at others is decisive of our own humanity. We can’t simply see others as things, but as a child of God, as one made in the image and likeness of God. We each protect the dignity of each other, and that must first start with ourselves.

One of the biggest things I took away from Seek was the fact that if I was less focused on myself and my own insecurities, I would be able to love others so much more and so much better. How much more love there would be if we could all just set aside our own pride and love as God tells us to love.