Love for self

I wonder what Jesus' command to love one's neighbor as one loves themselvese looks like exactly.

I get the whole Love the Lord your God with all of your heart mind and strength. I along with other Christians are asked to put Jesus above all else and base our life and relationships on his love for us-then extending the same type of love to others.

But what does loving oneself involve?

I think it's some of the following.

1) Eat healthy foods-and take time to cook and eat them sitting down with others when possible.
2) Get 7-9 hours a sleep often
3) Exercise often.
4) Hug your children and tell them you love them
5) Hug your spouse or significant other and tell them you love them
6) Believe it when God says we're forgiven. Jesus says that when we confess our sins that God is just and forgives us of our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Don't beat yourself up or degrade who you are in the name of being humble.
7) Be truly humble-seeking first how we may offer a loving word, action, or thought rather than how we might judge or point out the speck in someone else's eye when we have a plank in our own. When we don't spend energy judging other people then we have more energy for loving-this builds us up.
8) Remind yourself every day that you are created in the image of God-and that God dwells within you-Christ is in you the hope of glory.
9) Wear clothes that make you feel good-shallow one-but effective nonetheless. Even if its something you got from the thrift store-if it is comfy and makes you feel good-enjoy it.
10) Seek the enjoyment in every task-even if you hate whatever it is you are doing-like a necessity at work or home-think of what you are doing as giving glory to God-and seek how it can be thought of as fun. This won't always work-but if you re frame the thoughts-then the feelings follow.

11) Think positive thoughts-if you find yourself thinking a negative thought-ask God to help you replace it with a positive thought. It works-re frame the thought-the feelings follow-positive thoughts=positive attitudes=positive action=positive results.

12) Don't waste your time arguing. Stop and ask yourself "What is going on with this person?" Seek first to understand and then to be understood (As in one of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People)

Typically if you understand where someone is coming from, their motivation if possible-then you can determine if a response is appropriate. Sometimes people are coming from a place of hate-and sometimes they are coming from a place of love. If hate, then shake the dust off of your sandals and move on from that village is how Jesus worded it. To spend time in the presence of one who will not accept you as the child of God you are takes away from your place as a child of God. The problem then lies with them.

13) Laugh, laugh some more, laugh again, laugh laugh and laugh. There was some statistic that said children on average laugh four or more times in an hour-and they're happier in general for it. Granted they don't have a job, a mortgage, a relationship with a mate, taxes, or responsibilities to weigh them down-but Jesus instructed us to have faith like a child, and to receive the Kingdom of God like a child. This means with happiness, and laughter at the ready-lightness of heart and mind, and freedom to not worry about what other people think about us. Another factor to consider is that children laugh when someone says "You're a dookie head." and comments similar to that. It may take a LITTLE more to amuse us when we're older.

and FINALLY my last morsel of wisdom for us to savor:

14) Go outside and play instead of spending time writing blogs all the time.

Gotta go there's a swing outside with my name on it. I have to find out who's going around writing my name on playground equipment.
Dwight

Warning don't feed the pastor

Pastors are often fat.

That's true of me so I feel entitled to comment on it. I'm not sure that there's an excuse-but certainly the explanation is that we tend to care for everyone else before we do ourselves.

What's funny about that? Well I've come up with some ideas that may help us preachers and Christians do more to make our bodies a temple instead of a literal living (but soon to be dead from obesity) sacrifice unto God. We like to dig our graves with a spoon and fork thank you very much-its so benign and gradual. Plus it tastes good.

I think something helpful would be a treadmill or stationary bike attached to the sound system of the church-the speakers and microphones would not work unless I peddled fast enough.

Walking to visit people in the hospital-God knows the gas prices would make it easier to do this with a good conscience.

How about this one? An elliptical trainer that would run the electricity going to my laptop? Now that's a great idea. If I couldn't get on here to blog-or check my email say 112 times a day-I'd feel like a junkie without a fix. The amount of miles I'd cover to stay connected would be staggering.

Maybe we could have cell phones that run on kinetic energy. The number of minutes I get would be tied to the amount of movement in which I was engaged. For them to work you'd have to be walking, lifting weights, or dancing. I like the dancing idea-doing a swing dance while conversing would make for a good mental focusing exercise as well as physical.

Oh and how about deep knee bends while praying-say the Lord's prayer over and over while standing up and down-until you've said it 100 times.

Here's one to help the whole congregation. Have as much liturgy as possible-and stand up on alternating verses of the call to worship. Also stand up and and sit down on alternating verses of the hymns.

Put in a mill that grinds wheat that has to be pushed manually to make the bread for communion-have communion every Sunday.

Walk to church from home-carrying a backpack full of Bibles so that its a Holy journey.

Literally pick up your cross daily and follow Jesus-make sure your cross weighs no less than 70% of your body weight-and no more than 120% of it. Carry it everywhere-especially in Wal-Mart to impress people with your piety.

Also make sure to walk in place the entire time you do the liturgy for communion-of course one in which you use only whole grain bread that you milled yourself.

Grow, tend, and harvest the grapes for the communion that you have every Sunday.

Finally when you sing the hymn "Guide My Feet While I Run This Race" sprint around the sanctuary through all six verses.

I'm feeling more fit already. My fingers must have burned eleven calories typing this. Now I'm going to have some pie and coffee so I can have energy for the worship service on Sunday. I've got bread and juice to make.

Grace,
Dwight