"Loving Yourself to Love Others"

Matthew 22:36-40 says "Teacher which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied "Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all you soul and with all your mind.' this is the first and greatest commandment. An the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself." all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." So, growing up I was always told to love other people. At a very young age I was always asked and many times forced to share my toys. As I grew older, I was told to be nice to everyone and never exclude or leave anyone out. It is fair to say loving other people was always something my parents always tried to teach me. I was just taught to really love other people and not so much myself. Middle School was a very tough time for me. I was really trying to find out who I was and what I stood for and became my own person. I changed schools my 8th grade year and this provided a great chance to be me and not live in the shadows of other siblings and expectations I had set as a child. Changing schools however was hard for me to try and find acceptance and actually have friends. I really lost who I was and really did not love who I was and in return I was unable to love others. It took me until my senior year in high school to realize that if I ever wanted to pour out the love the God intends us to pour out on others I would have to totally love myself. The greatest tool that can be used to witness is Love. If you want God to witness through you, you will have to look into who you are and really see if you love yourself. If you cant love yourself how can you expect to love others?