C.S Lewis said a statement about love in his book “The Four Loves” that always helped me understand the importance of love and connection to ourselves. He writes, “To love at all is to be vulnerable.”  I have not thought about love this way until reading this quote, that when we love one another we are sharing a piece of us that we might not have in other circumstances. This statement is true in regard to love of other people, love of God, and even love of ourselves. Sometimes it is hard for us to take time and truly love ourselves in the way that our Creator has showed us. We are created in the image of God; we have been knit in accordance with God’s plan and it is truly good. However, sometimes we, I know I do, struggle with this love. We don’t think that we are worthy of the love, gifts, and blessings that we have been given so we put ourselves down.

As we begin 2021, I wanted to change that narrative. From one of self-deprecation and doubt to one of self-acceptance and true love, the same love that God shows us, and we are called to show all creation. The list created is a compilation of other thoughts that I have framed into simple sentences that we can all say in the mirror, as we drink our morning coffee, or just remind ourselves when we feel down. They are sentences that are simple to read but sometimes not so simple to accept as true. My prayer for others and myself this year is start again. To begin with the hope and redeeming love of the Christmas story lighting our path and guiding I hope that we can take time to love ourselves as God has loved us. As I tell my students we cannot fill others buckets when our bucket is empty. So, take a moment or two to connect with the words that resonate with you and ones that you aim to tell yourselves so that you can love God’s creation and God. We are created by love, to love, but we also need to be surrounded in love, including love of self.

Here are some of the affirmations that I personally connect with and will try to work on this year. The first one that I connect with says, “I forgive myself and hold myself in a state of compassion and care.” Over this past year with the struggles of quarantine, the election, and injustices that our siblings in Christ have been facing I felt like I wasn’t doing enough. I connect with this statement because it reminds of the forgiveness that I have received through the work of the cross and prepares my heart for lent so I can truly reflect on all the events of the year and trust that God will help me forgive myself and others. The other statement that connects with me is “I choose love and forgiveness over hate and fear for myself and others.” I believe that this statement and the one before are connected because they both call us to think about forgiveness and acknowledgement of not being okay. I think that both of these statements are things that I am going need to work on after being in the pandemic and not completing all the tasks that I wanted. This year I aim to begin with forgiveness and peace because they are things that are needed in our world today.

            The love and acceptance stated here starts with God. John in his letter to a group of followers who were struggling tells them about how our love begins with God since They first loved us. He writes, “This is how God showed his love among us; He sent his one and only Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us…We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4: 10-12, 19) Since God is love and God loves us and calls us to love one another we also need to give this love to ourselves. When we show love to ourselves and the rest of creation, we are living out the commandment of God: to love.