Love others.

Since the earliest years of childhood, children are taught “The Golden Rule”: to treat others how you would want to be treated. However, what we are not taught is that the origin of this saying is found in the Bible.

"Love your neighbor as yourself”

-Galatians 5:14.

This would solve a lot of problems our world faces today, but we tend to overlook this quote as opposed to live by it. The key to loving your neighbor as yourself is first learning to love yourself. This is achieved through learning who you are and being mindful in your identity not through worldly things, but through Christ. The best way to learn who you are is to go to scripture to see how God perceives you. In the book of Pslams, David writes that we are all “perfectly made in his image”. Every single one of us. This means no one is better than anyone else and we are all perfect in God's eyes.

Now, you might be wondering who your neighbor is. Your neighbor can be anyone from a stranger you pass by once to your family members living with you day to day. Like the Good Samaritan parable in the Bible, our “neighbor” can even be a complete stranger who we expect nothing in return from.

Christ uses the wording love your neighbor as ‘yourself’ because we are very good at taking care of ourselves. We want what is best for ourselves and our self interests, so by making ourselves the benchmark for how to love others, Christ is showing us how to truly love our neighbor. A key factor to loving our neighbors is that we should not wait until we feel loved to start loving others. We don’t need to be in a surplus of self-love before we can start giving it to others. Jesus explains this in simple terms when He says love your neighbor AS you love yourself. No more, no less. Loving our neighbors can be done in countless ways. Whether it’s lending someone a listening ear, keeping someone in your prayers, giving food to those in need, encouraging someone who’s struggling, or even just something as simple as smiling at someone.

Ask and pray for God to open your eyes to those around you who may need encouragement or support. The world could use more love and it’s something that we all could improve on and make a conscious effort. Help yourself and help others by loving your neighbors :)