In today's first reading, 1 Thes 3:7-13, St. Paul tells the Thessalonians that he is praying that God may increase their love for one another and that they will abound in love for one another as well! Imagine Jesus saying to you:
"(Insert your name), I ask you that your love for others increases and that you abound in love so that you will be blameless in holiness when, with all the saints, you enter my Presence eternally. That necessarily means that I want you, also, and above all, to increase your love for yourself. Why? Because without loving yourself, you will be unable to extend love to others. Healthy love of self is a prerequisite to loving others. When you thrive in love for yourself, you are nonjudgmental of yourself, gentle, caring, and understanding of self. You then, also, care for yourself with appropriate eating, exercising, relaxing, and sleeping and also by developing supportive relationships. Healthy self-love is also reflected in the way you dress. Self-respect, an essential part of love, abounds and, so, too, then, does respect for others. I want all of this of you!
"When you enter my Eternal Dwelling Place in heaven, I will give you a glorified body, revealing that my love for you, then and now, is plentiful. In short, I want you to imitate me on earth in how you relate to yourself and others. And my love for you is unconditional. So, too, must yours be!"
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