It’s sometimes called the Golden Rule, part of a way that Jesus, my Boss, encourages us to live. “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

This principle of loving your neighbour, wanting the best for those around you, is usually recognised as a key moral virtue, even if you disregard any other parts of the Christian faith.
And it’s something you do best if you know how to love yourself.

Unfortunately “Loving yourself”, has some pretty negative connotations. Of being “precious” or “selfish.” It can be a self-obsession that rides rough-shod over the thoughts, felling s and needs of others.

At it’s best though, “loving yourself” means to see yourself as you really are. It doesn’t mean you have to hide your faults and imperfections. I know that I have plenty of them. It doesn’t mean that you say they don’t matter and deny the need for change.

But “loving yourself” is also about recognising the good as well as the bad. You may have tremendous capacity to cause harm, but you also need to see the potential you posses to do good, and accept to that as much as your “Darker” side.

Only by knowing something of who you really are can you genuinely deal with both praise and criticism – and they won’t make you either proud and over-bearing or hurt and defensive.

From the security of “loving yourself” you can see all the better how to love your neighbours, and how to go beyond that - to obey the other half of Jesus statement about behaviour. To love the God who made each one of us, with all that you are, all that you have, and all that you could be.