Unconditional Love

I was once bothered that I could not find any reasons for which I should love myself. I mean, sure, I have wonderful handwriting and a moderately good looking nose, but really, deep down inside I never felt I was a lovable person.

I started wondering why God, the ultimate embodiment of love, loves us, hoping to find some way in which I could love myself.

If we believe that God loves us all unconditionally, and we are God-like spiritual beings, capable of expressing at least some of His divine attributes, we should learn to love ourselves unconditionally as well. It was very foolish of me to try and find reasons to love myself, when the Lord Himself doesn't need any.

We are not meant to love ourselves because of some concrete reason. There needs to be NO REASON for which we should love ourselves! This is the essence of unconditional love.

We can also learn to conditionally appreciate ourselves for our good qualities, strengths and the things that make us unique, but the core foundation of our love has to be the same unconditional love by which we are loved by God. Anything else shall fail.

When we love like God, all our mistakes, unpolished rough edges, embarrassments and moral failures will not have any influence in what we feel about ourselves at the deepest level. We don't have to settle for mere self acceptance anymore.

It is with this same unconditional love that we are to equally love those we come in contact with in our daily lives. Nothing more is required, and nothing less shall be acceptable. This is impossibly hard, and it will make it clear whether the love of God is truly within us.

Once we have learned to love ourselves with God's unconditional love us, anything more that that we have the opportunity to give, and perhaps, receive, is merely a divine privilege.