“O Lord, our God, unwearied is your love for us.”
That’s a line I pray a lot with my missionary community. When we prayed it this week, I was flooded with questions, like:
What if our love for ourselves could be unwearied?
What if we could take our mistakes in stride, and believe what’s imperfect about us doesn’t define us?
What if, instead of living our lives on a proving ground, we lived from a place of profound peace and trusted there’s always a chance tomorrow, and today was just a learning moment?
It would change everything. It would change how we approach life, how we approach others, how we approach ourselves.
I touched on this topic last week, but I think it’s important enough to talk about again.
How we approach ourselves is key. If I don’t have to walk on eggshells all the time for myself, neither will I have to walk on eggshells for others, nor they for me.
It all begins with loving myself. My pastor has often said, “When you look at yourself in the mirror, say ‘I love you.’ You’re telling yourself you love you, and you’re telling Christ, who is in you, that you love Him, too.”
As smart as that is, I don’t usually do it. It’s awkward, it’s weird, and I try not to talk to myself. But why?!
All I’m doing is withholding the very thing I need to be at peace with myself, the very thing I so easily give to others, the very thing God himself doesn’t even withhold from me.
Let’s start a revolution. Lets us not only pray “O Lord, our God, unwearied is your love for us,” but let us also be able to genuinely say, “O [insert your name here], myself, unwearied is your love for you.” Let us love ourselves again, not in a prideful, self-centered way, but with an authentic love that says, “I am not perfect, but I am good.”
