Love Your Neighbor As Yourself….

Leviticus 19:18: Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Today’s verse reminds us to love others like we love ourselves. We are naturally built to love ourselves like when we are sick, we take care of ourselves, we get the rest that we need, we do our best to look after our eating and exercise. Generally speaking many of us do our best to care for ourselves, and if here in today’s verse, it gives us a clear example of a command given in the book of Matthews where Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

In our world today we can become consumed by ourselves. Especially with our phones, we can have our heads down and not even engage with each other. I want to share a story that literally happened a couple of days ago. We were coming out of the store and as I was backing out of my parking space, I quickly stopped because a man was on his phone, he didn’t see me and proceeded to walk right behind my car. I was going slow so it wasn’t a big deal, but my 7 year old said mom that guy needs to put his phone down and pay attention. Then he proceeded to share like he was talking to the man, he said ‘you should put your phone down, there is more to life than your phone and you are missing out. And you didn’t even know there was danger around’.

Well, you may be thinking that what’s the point in this story when we are talking about loving your neighbor as yourself. My point is that often our focus is not on our physical world. We are captivated with the screen. We pass people by and instead of making eye contact and smile, we can have our phone out or looking at it. Today, with all that was shared, what is God putting on your heart to shift your focus on, just for today? Because sometimes I think people can get overwhelmed when they think of making change in their life. It all feels like too much, so they end up doing nothing. As coaching entrepreneurs I find that is what happens too. But if we focus on ‘just for today’, it feels as though its attainable doesn’t it? I hope today leaves you feeling a sense of light and love and hope because I want you to know that you matter, and God loves you! So do I!