The Great Commandment

So what?  I can't say that this is something necessarily new that I have learned but it is something that I continually relearn and need to work on applying it better.  The Lord said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, might, mind, and strength.  The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.  The reason these commandments are so great and important is because following them will lead to following all others.  But how do we do this?

Now what?  Learning how to love others as you love yourself can be a lifelong pursuit.  I believe I mentioned before that it has to begin with loving yourself and knowing who you are.  After that, it is a lot of work to apply that same amount of love to others.  One thing I will try to do to accomplish this goal is to pray daily for the love of Christ.  When I have done this in my life I have always been blessed with greater love and understanding of others.  I am more patient and caring.  

Cholesterol

So what for this week may be a little odd and outside of my normal pattern.  I have learned a little this week about cholesterol and how it affects health.  I have also learned that cholesterol is only found in animal products.  Health is important to me and although I am quite active I think it is important to keep my cholesterol down.

Now what.  I am going to attempt to eat fewer animal products.  I will cut back on cheese and meat and milk etc.  I will also listen to my wife more and be healthier in what I eat.

Who are we?

So what?

In our time answering who we are can be more difficult than it used to be.  We are so globally social that we feel pressure from more fronts than just those who are in front of us.  When we are deciding who we are, what we like to do, wear, watch, and think we are constantly being influenced by family, friends, acquaintances, television, movies, internet, and music.  Those last four didn't exist less than a hundred years ago.  Back then people were taught by their families and friends and became the person a small local society expected them to be.  Now we are more diverse.  We get the perspective of a global society and see the world through more eyes.  This is a good thing when it comes to understanding and cooperation, its a bad thing when it comes to the individual.  It becomes much harder to decide who we are when there are so many different forces telling us who we should become.   We are told that there is a certain way to dress, talk, walk, dance, eat, think, and just about everything else that is cool and if we don't do things that way we are not "cool."  It can be had because we want to fit in, but what are we willing to give up to fit in?  We should take the time to make sure that we act instead of being acted upon.  God gave us agency, why then do we voluntarily give up that agency to society when we say, "I want to fit in and be cool, tell me who I am."  Let's keep our agency and be who we want to be.  Forgot about what others think.  There are enough people in this world and enough ways to connect that you can find people who are like you without changing to meet expectations. 

Now what?

Practical application.  I am going to take more time to observe myself.  I will take time to ponder who I am and what my values are.  What do I like to do? What do I enjoy?  Who am I?  Then, I will find things that I do that are not me and I will change them.  I will act how I want to act.  

Love yourself!

When reading the scriptures this week with my wife I realized something that has a pretty great impact on me.  I was thinking about the words of the scripture in Mark 12:29-31.  I have read this scripture many times but, as is common with the scriptures, there was some significance to my life to be found in the scriptures that the spirit could  teach me that I had not previously seen before.  This verses read as follows.   

29 "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."  (Mark 12:29-31)

The part of these verses that was significant to me on this occasion was the first part of verse 31, "love thy neighbor as thyself."  I believe that it is common for us to look at this commandment and, with the righteous attitude of humility, think that it is telling us to love ourselves less.  For some reason we completely ignore the actual words the Lord says and we think, "this means I shouldn't love myself."  We may not think this consciously but I know that I have been guilty of pulling this meaning from this verse.  Taking the time to really think about the commandment though I realized a simple but important truth.  THE LORD WANTS US TO LOVE OURSELVES.  Love your neighbor as thyself.  is a very weak commandment if we think that means we should not love ourselves.  I believe he would rather we love ourselves more so that we will love our neighbors more.  

While I believe I could write much more on this topic I think you get my point.  So what am I going to do now?

I am going to love myself more.  How?  I am going to apply another thought I had that very much applies to this idea. That thought is that the Lord does not compare us to others when he judges us.  We are each judged individually.  So, if the Lord wants me to love myself and he does not compare my to others I will not do that either.  I believe this will help me to be more confident and sure of myself.