Loving your neighbor is a two step process

Readers-

I recently started taking a class on listening (I know I know, as if I didn't have enough to do...)  But, I like to talk, and I am pretty comfortable listening, but it could never hurt to try something new and it is only an hour out of my week.  That's not the point to my story...

Had I been still teaching, I would have had Jr. High tonight (I am SOOO sorry that I never got to say bye to them too, by the way...).  Anyways, I had scheduled tonight that our topic of conversation would be about "Loving your Neighbor", as it is lent.  So we might reflect on WHO our neighbor is and WHY we need to love them... Sounds like a pretty good thing to do, right?

And then I went to this class.  

At the end of this class the exercise was for one person to talk for 4 minutes about a time when they felt good.  WHOA! I mean, most people can talk about themselves... but GOOD things... and for 4 minutes.  Unheard of.

Think about it. Everyday we put ourselves down.  Advertisements tell us how we can look better all day long.  Which got me to thinking... How am I supposed to love my neighbor when I don't even love myself? Not to say that I DON'T love myself (I mean, seriously, what's NOT to love..? kidding.), but it was hard to think of 4 minutes worth of"Good things" to share.  So, had I been able to reformat my original thought, maybe a better plan would have been to talk about loving ourselves first, and being able to acknowledge... and THEN worrying about our neighbor.  

So I am challenging YOU to think of a time when you felt good about yourself.  If you can change your attitude about how you perceive yourself, it make loving your neighbor way easier.  Seriously, let me know how this goes.  And while your at it, let me know how not complaining is going too :)

the best way I can sum this up is to pull lyrics from Incubus' song "Warning":

 "I suggest we learn to love ourselves before its made illegal"