"Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.
I know thy heart, and have heard thy prayers concerning thy brethren. Be not partial towards them in love above many others, but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound unto all men, and unto all who love my name."
Doctrine and Covenants 112:10-11
The commandment not to be partial in the second verse seems to me to be an extension of humility. Partiality can be looked at as an injection of pride, in terms of assuming that the people we value are inherently more valuable than others. God asks us to love everyone, not just the people that are close to us, or the people that are similar to us.
I don't think this means neglecting our families of course, but that goes back to Matthew 5:46. If we only love the people that love us, we aren't going far enough. Mark 3:35 also I think makes the point that we can't neglect doing God's will, even for those closest to us, because we're *all* family.
Loving ourselves has to be part of this as well. Part of humility is not loving ourselves way more than we love others, but I think it is also making sure that we aren't getting down on ourselves and learning self-hatred either. If we love others as we love ourselves, that presupposes that we love ourselves enough to want to improve, and to petition God for his help to do so. Self-hatred is, ironically, also a form of selfishness. Just like hating other people, we are placing our own will before God's. No one is worthless--not other people, and not ourselves. If we prioritize self-doubt and despair before the Lord's message that we are valuable, and worthy of saving, then we're choosing ourselves rather than God. With God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1:37), and when we give up on ourselves, we are giving up on God's grace in our lives.
Today, let's work on loving impartially. Of course we should love the people close to us, but let's go out of our way to extend that same love to everyone. Let's become more inclusive and invite more and more into the circle of our affection, until, with God's help, we really learn to love everyone as Christ does, seeing their inherent worth and their potential. Let's also trust God that *we* have worth and potential as well, and work with God on improving our self-confidence as part of our work on impartiality. :)
I know thy heart, and have heard thy prayers concerning thy brethren. Be not partial towards them in love above many others, but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound unto all men, and unto all who love my name."
Doctrine and Covenants 112:10-11
The commandment not to be partial in the second verse seems to me to be an extension of humility. Partiality can be looked at as an injection of pride, in terms of assuming that the people we value are inherently more valuable than others. God asks us to love everyone, not just the people that are close to us, or the people that are similar to us.
I don't think this means neglecting our families of course, but that goes back to Matthew 5:46. If we only love the people that love us, we aren't going far enough. Mark 3:35 also I think makes the point that we can't neglect doing God's will, even for those closest to us, because we're *all* family.
Loving ourselves has to be part of this as well. Part of humility is not loving ourselves way more than we love others, but I think it is also making sure that we aren't getting down on ourselves and learning self-hatred either. If we love others as we love ourselves, that presupposes that we love ourselves enough to want to improve, and to petition God for his help to do so. Self-hatred is, ironically, also a form of selfishness. Just like hating other people, we are placing our own will before God's. No one is worthless--not other people, and not ourselves. If we prioritize self-doubt and despair before the Lord's message that we are valuable, and worthy of saving, then we're choosing ourselves rather than God. With God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1:37), and when we give up on ourselves, we are giving up on God's grace in our lives.
Today, let's work on loving impartially. Of course we should love the people close to us, but let's go out of our way to extend that same love to everyone. Let's become more inclusive and invite more and more into the circle of our affection, until, with God's help, we really learn to love everyone as Christ does, seeing their inherent worth and their potential. Let's also trust God that *we* have worth and potential as well, and work with God on improving our self-confidence as part of our work on impartiality. :)
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