"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
Happy Valentine's Day, friends!
I opened up an email today that read "Be your own Valentine, that's real Self Love goals #relationshipgoals" and I thought two things
1) Why do I sign up to read content from people who talk like this in real life? 😅
2) You sure 'bout that?
Now, I'm the first one to tell you I'm all for loving you for you in all your imperfect, fro'd out, freak-flag-flyin ways- BUT- (you all saw the "but" coming, right, you better have by now!) I think we've taken a step or 63 miles past that point and are straight in the self-absorbed, self-idol, self-centered, FEELS REAL GOOD, part of the journey as a society.
The idea that "we must first love ourselves before we can love others" has a place, but for the most part, WE'RE REAL GOOD AT LOVING OURSELVES, Y'ALL. Serving ourselves, catering to our needs, looking out for Number One. And Jesus KNEW this- He said "Love your neighbor (literal, actual, people living right next door to you; your family that drives you nuts, your coworker that stinks) as you love yourself. He knew we were full of it two thousand years ago!
So- PLOT TWIST- don't let the fear of taking the love you have for yourself into idolatry keep you from taking care of yourself. Don't deny yourself love and care and expect all of your outward devotion to be worth anything- it will be coming from a dry well.
Take me-
My main mission in life at this moment is to be my husband's number one fan and support, and raise our girls to know Christ (and read, I guess) I stay home and school them in our living room to accomplish this.
So I have potentially 24 hours in a day to work with
We'll say 7 of those are spent sleeping, 3-4 of them are spent alone with my husband after the girls are in bed, 2-3 of them are spent going to and from the gym for a weightlifting session, and 1 hour is spent taking, organizing, editing, and posting an image- that leaves me with 5 uninterrupted hours with the girls every single day. That's 1825 hours a year. It takes me 8 hours a day to prepare myself to be fully available for a 9 hour job- and I think that is fair.
I'd like to argue that "loving yourself" is preparing yourself to be the best wife, mother, daughter, friend, student, employee, etc. that brings glory to God. One that is loving, kind, selfless, and full of the fruits of the Spirit.
I find so much joy in photographing families in Rockport, Texas - if you are wanting me to photograph you loving you and your babies, visit my shop or email me at hello@maeburke.com for more info on booking a session with me.