Article August 15, 2005 Issue

IT'S OK TO LOVE YOURSELF

Sarah Nelson

IN SUNDAY SCHOOL WE WERE ENCOURAGED TO FOLLOW JESUS' TEACHING about loving your neighbor as yourself. Loving my neighbor felt right, but I had a really tough time with the "as yourself" part. On the one hand, it sounded egotistical, as if I were supposed to puff myself up. On the other hand, I didn't think there was much good about me to puff up.

As I grew into young adulthood, I joined The Mother Church. While raising a family, I searched the Bible and Science and Health, looking for answers to the question it seems everyone comes around to at some point, "Who am I, anyway?" I wanted to follow Jesus' teaching. But if I was to love myself, I desperately needed to know just what there was to love. All I saw was a self-conscious, insecure, incapable, even downtrodden, individual.

Eventually I began to see the light. As I prayed, I was strongly encouraged by passages in the Bible, especially the 23rd Psalm ("Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life") and the 91st Psalm ("He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust"). But I still kept thinking I hadn't gotten the whole picture. I felt there must be a complete, concise truth—some governing principle associated with God and His creation, not just scattered, comforting bits and pieces.