Song of Songs 4:7
“You are altogether beautiful, my darling, there is no flaw in you.”
There are 7.7 billion people in the world today. We are all human. We all have flaws, and we all must find a way to love ourselves; accepting our flaws, mistakes, weaknesses, regrets, and all. Self-love can feel and sound like a strange or foreign concept.
I think deep down we all love ourselves, hopefully, but intentionally loving ourselves can be easier said than done. Loving yourself is essential when it comes to our daily lives, physical and mental health, and our relationships with others. When we learn to love ourselves, there are many other things that come along with it: valuing your own existence, physical, mental, and spiritual growth, self-confidence, happiness, and most importantly, the ability to love others.
Briana Durkin, a junior nursing major at Southern Nazarene University says that self-love means, “acceptance of yourself and others, and love is unconditional.” I couldn’t agree more. She believes that loving yourself is important because, “if you can’t love yourself, how are you supposed to love others?”
Accepting ourselves is the first and most important step when it comes to self-love. But where do we go from there? Some ways we can practice loving ourselves are, “changing our mindset to accepting our flaws, and celebrating ourselves for our achievements whether they are big or small,” Colton Kinnamon, a freshman Worship Arts major at Southern Nazarene University. Colton’s definition of love is, “making anyone and everyone feel welcomed and appreciated.”
This is a perfect example of how we can better love others when we learn to love ourselves. Some other ways to practice loving ourselves include: buying yourself flowers, speaking life and truth over yourself every day, working out, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, being positive, forgiving yourself, having more grace for yourself, etc.
When we start practicing these things, loving ourselves will become easier and will begin to transform our lives for the better, allowing us to love one another more. Love yourself, you are worth it, my friend. This week I challenge each one of you to practice loving yourself. You are loved. You are wonderfully made. You are beautiful. You have a purpose. You are a masterpiece. #selfloveclub
(Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash)