Love your neighbor

“It’s hard to see something in a way that you don’t want to see it and know that you have the option to view it differently. It’s like looking at an optical allusion, which ever way you want to see, it is there. But the approach we take to seeing what we want in the optical illusion is not by saying don’t see object b, but rather saying I want to see object a.. focusing on what you don’t want to be like is no way to become who you desire to be.” 

-James Comenzo

For 21 years of my life I've spent my time worrying about who I was, comparing my self with those around me and constantly trying to better myself by picking out all of my flaws. I'd hone in on a flaw and spend countless hours consumed by the thought of it, until I came to a breaking point and would just give up. I don't know if you're like me, but if you are, this can be extremely overwhelming and quite frankly frustrating. It drains you of your joy, your patience, your love for others. The truth is by constantly being consumed by the thoughts of what we need to work on, we forget to love ourselves. By not loving ourselves we forfeit the ability to love others. Jesus said, "Love one another as you love yourselves..." the "Golden rule." But what if you don't love yourself? If you hate the person you are, you'll begin to hate the people around you. If you are frustrated with your lack of patience, you'll find the people around you to be increasingly impatient and annoying. 

I've heard it said, "The purpose of a father is to see his son in the state he will become, not the state he is in." Loving yourself more means focusing your attention less on what you don't like and seeing the potential of who you can be. Sure you focus on your needs, your health, and your desires, but when we focus on the person we don't want to be, we forget about the person we could be. I've learned a lot this semester about what it means to love myself. Sometimes loving yourself means doing the selfish thing. Sometimes being selfish can be the most selfless thing we do. I've learned that loving our neighbor means loving them as much as we love the person that God sees us to be. The more we begin to see ourselves as he sees us; the potential, the passion, the dreams, the more we will begin to see the potential, passion and dreams in others. 

-The Albatross