Daily Worship

Loving Ourselves

Norah Summers September 10, 2016 0 0

Leviticus 19: 17-18

“Do not bear a grudge against others, but settle your differences with them, so that you will not commit a sin because of them.
18 Do not take revenge on others or continue to hate them, but love your neighbors as you love yourself. I am the Lord.

“Do not bear grudges, or take revenge,

but love your neighbour as you love yourself”.

 

It’s often the loving of ourselves that is hard, Lord –

 

we are told we should not have too good a conceit of ourselves –

but how can we love others 

if we have no sense of our own worth?

 

We might envy them,

or resent them,

 

but love?

 

Our own loss –

bereavement,

perhaps unemployment,

or chronic illness -

takes away our confidence.

 

So we lose also our dignity

and sense of self-worth,

 

and begin to blame others, 

especially if they are “different” from us –

foreign,

or living an alien life-style.

 

Are they not still our neighbours to love?

 

Free us, Lord, from envy and resentment, 

from belittling ourselves,

from bemoaning our sorry state –

 

turn us towards our neighbours as equals,

 

all your children,

to live and work

and laugh and cry

and comfort each other, 

as we all face the challenges,

the sorrows and the joys of life.

 

Give us grace, Lord,

to accept the surprising ways 

in which you bless the mourners.