My Unlimited Source of Self-love

God shows us grace so that we can extend that expression of grace to others, he blesses us so that we can then be a blessing to others.

All too often do I hear "If I do this or that, I will BE blessed for it", but that is law based thinking (old testament) and not the concept of grace (new testament). Many forget the fact that God blesses us BEFORE we can ever be a blessing to anyone else because he is our creator and the source of every good thing that we possess. From the perspective of grace, we can be a blessing to others BECAUSE we are ALREADY blessed.

Possessing self-love is an important concept because it is an ideal that allows one to be full before pouring into others. While, I am all for the modern day self-love movement of people awakening to the ideology that they need to love themselves the same way they seek to love others, I had to also keep in perspective that I can never love myself more than God already does. The perception I have of myself will always be jaded and biased by the limits of my own imperfect humanity. Whenever doubt creeps in, I have to pray, “Lord , help me to see myself as you see me” because the way I see me will always be flawed and limited. When I allow God to shape the lens in which I view myself, doubt has no room to survive. God’s perception of me is pansophical. He sees all of me, past, present and future and loves me without blemish.

When I allow God to shape the personal perception I have of myself and be the source of my self-love, it consequently allows me the ability to pour into others because I can never run empty when he is the source of my fulfillment. Giving from a place of self-effort only results in unmet expectations, resentment from not receiving something in return, feeling taken advantage of because of the lack of reciprocation and overall the feeling of having nothing left to give.

The fact that I had ever felt used from past relationship trauma is a direct result of me giving to people (even family) in a way I was never spiritually advised to, because I sought to give of myself from a place of self-effort and not from a source that was being replenished by God. To avoid the emotional exhaustion of giving too much of myself, it also helps when I ask God to "soften my heart and fill me with the love needed to extend to another, because right now I feel like I don't have it".

When God is my source of self-love I can never run dry thus allowing me to always love others the way God loves me.