by Ann Nurse

Created on: February 20, 2010   Last Updated: May 26, 2010

 Improving Our Love of Self

Learning to love oneself is basic to growing and becoming whole and accepting of yourself as a individual of worth.  This effort requires assistance  by other people in your life.  People who relate to you in a positive and loving manner help you to have a good outlook and perception of love and facilitate you in accepting yourself as worthy of being loved and of loving others.  Love is a shared experience.  Love is not isolated, it involves reaching out to other people in a compassionate and caring manner.  We improve and grow as we receive positive feedback that it is a rewarding experience.

Most of us will agree that our first encounter with love began with our mother/child relationship. Children, on the average, have their first love experience with a nurturing mother.  We learn from our parents, particularly Mother, that  there is a sense of security in love.  The child begins to learn that love involves caring, tenderness, selflessness, compassion and affection.  When that child’s circle of interaction grows and they enter school, they find everyone does not have the same perception of what love means or who should receive love.  We say this is a phase of growing up.

There are adults today who carry scars from cruel encounters in school with other children because they were struggling with loving themselves and others. Many people are insecure about their identity because they allowed someone else to make them feel less love for themselves. The word “self esteem” has become a prominent term you hear on television because of the many issues that revolve around how love is handled.   If they have problems in the workplace, some attribute it to “low self-esteem.”  To improve our love of self, it seems we should start at the beginning.  Who teaches us to love “self” in the first place?  If we are going to improve love of self, we probably should be on the same page about the meaning of love.  The best love example we have in found in The Word of God.  The Bible says that God Is Love.  No one can teach you how to improve loving self than the author and finisher of our faith, Love Himself.

Matthew 22:37-40 reads like this.

“ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love The Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. 

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