Compassion Helps Us Love Ourselves
For the month of July, children and families from our church and in the Decatur community will be participating in a take-home VBS called “Compassion Camp.” Families will spend five sessions learning about the different ways compassion helps us and the world around us.
Each week from now until July 29, our devotion and daily prayer will focus on the theme from that week’s VBS session. Many of the stories that you will hear will be familiar, but I want to encourage you to hear them with new ears and see them with new eyes- and through the lens of compassion.
Scripture
Mark 12:28-31 and Deuteronomy 6 (Illustrated Ministry Paraphrase)
Jesus and the disciples spent a lot of time in Jerusalem. One day, he was at the temple, a place where people gathered to worship God, and he was teaching and telling stories. A lot of people listened eagerly, but many had questions.
The temple leaders and elder were unsure of him and asked: “Who gave you the power to do and say these things?” Some were jealous and wanted to trick him, so they asked: “Should the people pay takes” Others were worried and asked him: “What happens in the resurrection and the afterlife?”
Then, one temple leader was curious about Jesus. He saw that Jesus was wise and kind.
He asked him: “Which one of God’s laws (commandments) is the most important?”
Jesus answered: “The first is what we all know: ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your hear, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’”
Before the temple leader could ask more, Jesus went on: “The second is ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ These two are the most important of God’s laws.”
Reflection
I will admit that when I think of the word “compassion,” it is usually connected to a definition that is outward focused. So when I saw that the theme for the third session was “Compassion Helps us Love Ourselves,” I was a little surprised. But after I went through the day’s theme, I am so glad that this approach to compassion was included.
Here again, we have a passage that is very familiar to us. We all know “The Golden Rule” and I’m sure we all try to do our best to live by it. I don’t know about you, but whenever I heard this second commandment from Jesus, I always focused on the “love your neighbor” part. I think this is partially because that is the part that comes with an action- to love others. It’s not always easy or the most popular decision, but growing up it seemed like the more natural command.
But now as I am older, I am realizing that for many of us, it is just as hard to “love ourselves.” And maybe for many of us, we focus on loving our neighbor so we can avoid the “loving ourselves” bit. We have all heard it said that we can’t fully love others until we fully love ourselves. But that doesn’t mean it is easy to do either.
I’ve been fairly open about my journey in therapy over the last year or so. While in the past admitting you were in therapy was not the most popular decision, I feel like more and more people are being open about their therapy journey and experiences in an effort to remove some of the taboo around it.
I will also admit that there has been more time talking about what it looks like to “love myself” than I ever anticipated. I decided to go to therapy to begin processing some of the events of my childhood and my relationship with my family of origin. Naturally, there were way more underlying issues than I think I realized.
But over the course of the past year or so, I have done a lot of hard work (and shed a lot of tears!) over this topic. But every difficult conversation or realization is worth it. Because the more I come to accept the person God has created me to be, the freer I feel and the easier it is to love myself, which then leads to being able to love and care for others more fully.
Reflection
What does it mean to love ourselves?
Why is this important?
How does having love for ourselves help us love ourselves? To love God?
Reverend Kristen Koger has served as the Pastor for Children and Families at FBC Decatur since June 2017. Kristen loves working with the youngest of God’s family as she helps them realize that they have some of the most important gifts to offer the family of God. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with her dog Dietrich “Bonehoeffer,” cooking, knitting, and playing board games.