{"id":610,"date":"2011-03-30T08:41:20","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T12:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/?p=610"},"modified":"2011-03-29T20:42:11","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T00:42:11","slug":"what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html","title":{"rendered":"What Does It Mean to Love Yourself?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a new post on her.meneutics, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/2011\/03\/should_christians_use_selfhelp.html\" target=\"_blank\">Should Christians Use Self-Help Programs?<\/a>&#8221; It begins:<\/p>\n<p>We were staying with friends, and I was getting ready for the day in their daughter\u2019s bathroom. It was a typical tween-age space: cute stickers and sayings posted to the mirror, hair products and cotton balls and drugstore makeup on the shelf. A quote on the mirror caught my eye: \u201cI\u2019m Third.\u201d It came from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kanakuk.com\/\">Kanakuk<\/a>, a Christian sports camp in Missouri. In smaller print, I found an explanation: \u201cGod first. Others second. I\u2019m third.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/upload\/2011\/03\/selflove.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/upload\/2011\/03\/selflove-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"selflove.jpg\" width=\"314\" height=\"210\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Something about the quote struck me as off. I knew it came from the Bible. When the teachers of the law ask Jesus, \u201cWhat is the greatest commandment?\u201d he responds, \u201c\u2018Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.\u2019 This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself&#8217; \u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew%2022:36-40&amp;version=NIV\">Matt. 22:37-38<\/a>). I assume the Kanakuk saying intends to echo Jesus, yet the Bible states the command in a less hierarchical manner. Love of God remains at the top of the list, but love of neighbor and self are inextricably related. In fact, Jesus&#8217; command implies that we will know how to love our neighbor only if we properly love ourselves&#8230; to keep reading, click <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/2011\/03\/should_christians_use_selfhelp.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a new post on her.meneutics, &#8220;Should Christians Use Self-Help Programs?&#8221; It begins: We were staying with friends, and I was getting ready for the day in their daughter\u2019s bathroom. It was a typical tween-age space: cute stickers and sayings posted to the mirror, hair products and cotton balls and drugstore makeup on the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26,12,24,25],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-golden-rule","tag-her-meneutics","tag-self-help","tag-self-love"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Does It Mean to Love Yourself? - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Does It Mean to Love Yourself? - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a new post on her.meneutics, &#8220;Should Christians Use Self-Help Programs?&#8221; It begins: We were staying with friends, and I was getting ready for the day in their daughter\u2019s bathroom. It was a typical tween-age space: cute stickers and sayings posted to the mirror, hair products and cotton balls and drugstore makeup on the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-30T12:41:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-03-30T00:42:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/upload\/2011\/03\/selflove-thumb.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Does It Mean to Love Yourself? - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Does It Mean to Love Yourself? - Thin Places","og_description":"I have a new post on her.meneutics, &#8220;Should Christians Use Self-Help Programs?&#8221; It begins: We were staying with friends, and I was getting ready for the day in their daughter\u2019s bathroom. It was a typical tween-age space: cute stickers and sayings posted to the mirror, hair products and cotton balls and drugstore makeup on the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2011-03-30T12:41:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-03-30T00:42:11+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/upload\/2011\/03\/selflove-thumb.jpg"}],"author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html","name":"What Does It Mean to Love Yourself? - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/upload\/2011\/03\/selflove-thumb.jpg","datePublished":"2011-03-30T12:41:20+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-30T00:42:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/upload\/2011\/03\/selflove-thumb.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/upload\/2011\/03\/selflove-thumb.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-love-yourself.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Does It Mean to Love Yourself?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}