This morning I taught fellowship and am very excited about what I learned while putting the teaching together. An aspect of my teaching was love thy neighbor as thyself.
....Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.... and the second is like namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself..... (Mk 12:30,31).
This is how God says we should love our neighbor; Like ourselves. God could have chosen anything- love you neighbor like Jesus Christ, or like your children, but God knows how much we love ourselves and encourages us to love our neighbor like ourselves.
This reminded me of a passage from a book by Kay Warren a friend had posted on her blog.
The Kingdom of Me
"Not only do I seek complete control of everything around me, but my greatest and deepest love is reserved for ME. I am desperately in love with MYSELF. If I am completely honest, I have to admit that there are many times when I want the world to revolve around ME - MY comfort, MY pleasure, MY convenience. I desire that others see and interpret everything through MY eyes, make ME happy, meet MY needs, and refrain from offending ME, hurting ME, wounding ME, upsetting ME, or irritating ME. I want to be understood, appreciated, acknowledged, elevated, praised, valued, attended to, catered to, respected, admired, listened to, loved, adored and cherished."
Pretty eye opening. A place I find myself and a place I really do not want to be. On a quest to not be in this place, but rather a place of seeking God first and not myself I changed the words to this phrase to how God would have us love our neighbors.
The Kingdom of Others
I do not seek complete control of everything around me, my greatest and deepest love is reserved for God and my neighbors. I am desperately in love with God and my neighbors Being completely honest, I have to admit that there are many times when what I want to do is for others instead of myself. - Others comfort, Others pleasure, Others convenience. I want to see how Others interpret things, I want to make Others happy, meet Others needs, and refrain from offending Others, hurting Others, wounding Others, upsetting Others, or irritating Other people. I want to understood, appreciate, acknowledge, elevate, praise, value, attend to, cater to, respect, admire, listen to, love, adore and cherish not just God, but my family and fellow believers." - Kim's version
Wow, how our lives would be different if we could always love our neighbors as ourselves! I'm so thankful to God for showing how to live and for forgiving us when we fall short and realize it.
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1 comment:
Hey, I love how you changed that! Well done.
I've also been thinking of this much lately. It's amazing how much we love ourselves, when we really think about it. Applying that to others is not easy, but well worth the effort.
Thank you for sharing Kim!
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