I am so excited to say that today is the first day of the 21 Day Love Challenge! There are already 50 lovely people signed up and ready to start loving themselves and loving others and guess what? I could not be happier or more inspired! Thank you so much for all of your support! I seriously just want to reach out and hug everyone.
There is still time to participate and still a couple of days left to enter in the giveaway for some yummy healthy snacks, so if you haven’t joined, get on it! Another sweet giveaway is coming on Monday!
A couple of verses came to me this week. Yep, bible verses.
I haven’t talked faith on the blog in quite some time, but I can assure you that my faith, trust and love in God stand strong even if many of the other “religious” details remain a bit fuzzy. This first verse is the very reason that we need to love ourselves. If we cannot love ourselves, we have a very hard time loving others. Then again, when we love others we tend to feel good about ourselves so it can really go both ways.
I think it’s a pretty big deal that loving your neighbor sums up all of the commandments. The commandments were written as a way to guide human behavior. A way to know how to do the right thing. All of the biblical rules of conduct can be summed up as loving others. Loving everyone. No matter how difficult.
If you really want a challenge, focus your energy on loving that one person in your life that you dislike, who irks you, or who is just plain mean to you. I’m not saying you need to become best friends, but challenge yourself to turn your thoughts towards the positive when it comes to this person. It’s easy to love lovable people; tough to love the bullies and weirdos.
We are all in different places with this love thing. Some of us need to focus our love inwards for now in order to be more of a blessing to others later and some of us love ourselves a little TOO much. You know which aspect you need to work on (honestly, I feel like I need to work on both at times), so this is why I wanted the love challenge to be a little more broad.
Another verse (and song) I keep hearing the past couple of days is, “Love never fails.” Sure, loving others sometimes leaves us vulnerable for some heartache, but if we make it a mission to love on a daily basis…how can that be a bad thing?
So for today, focus on what will help you to love others. This might mean giving yourself a break to feel good about you, or it might even mean changing the way you think about your enemy. Whatever you do, try to do it with love. I will try my best right along side you!
Here are some songs to get you in the love your neighbor mood (all added to my Feel the Love playlist):
Tell me…
Your thoughts on the subject!
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I had to laugh at “some people love themselves a little too much”. Also, “love never fails” was apart of our wedding vows, so that makes me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy 🙂
Awww yay for warm fuzzies!! And you did note that I said I’m one of those people at times, right?? 😉
I agree, it is tough to love our neighbors as ourself. It’s always humbling to realize God loves a sinner like me- so I have no right to not love others.
Such a great point, Carley! No excuses!