How to Become Awesome

"The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:31 AMP)  "The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself . No other commandment is greater than these." (Mark 12:31 CEB) I like the Common English Bible because of how it words this verse.  Look at the different translations.  The Amplified says "You shall love..."  The Common English says "You will love..." Last year I was reading through the book of Mark when I came across this verse.  There are times when we read the Bible that specific verses will stand out.  When we read them our hearts will leap inside our chest.  That's what happened when I read verse 31.  I wondered, "If I'm loving my neighbor as much as I love myself, I hate a lot of people." I grew up always thinking lowly of myself.  I wasn't the most popular kid in school although I wasn't an outcast either.  I played different sports through high school.  I wasn't the worst player on the team but I wasn't the best either.  I guess through my life I've always been average.  Always just below the line of excellence yet above the line of you suck-ence.  You know, average.  This could have been one reason why I never really cared for myself.  I was always over weight, didn't go on many dates with the ladies, and stayed home most nights playing video games. As I got older I grew out of my shell.  I began losing weight and becoming more social.  This made me like myself and who I was a little more which gave me more of a positive outlook on life. How I view myself individually will be the filter in which I view the world around me.  If I hate myself then I will hate the world and constantly think things are getting worse around me.  If I love myself I will have a positive outlook on the world around me.  Although things could be falling apart, my view will be that of strength and determination to fix the issues. A few weeks ago I began going back to the gym and exercising along with eating healthier and getting a good night's sleep.  I noticed the positive results almost immediately.  I have tons of energy that last throughout the day.  I'm more confident than I've ever been and more relaxed around people.  I've noticed the positive results in my work and personal life.  I really love myself.  Where I used to make jokes about how much I sucked I now make jokes about how awesome I am. Is it wrong to be confident and think you're awesome?  Not at all.  I know churches for years have preached humility and how we need to be servants.  We need to be humble and we need to serve the church and humanity, but that doesn't mean we need to beat ourselves up and have a negative view of who we are.  We are princes and princesses.  We are the royalty of heaven and need to live from that understanding. When we hate ourselves, it forces those around us, for the most part, to treat us the same way we treat ourselves. George, a friend of mine is in leadership at his church.  George has a very negative view of himself.  He understands the principle of being royalty but he doesn't walk in that belief.  Because George lives with a negative view of his life it forces those in the church to treat him as such.  Instead of people telling him what a great job he is doing and encouraging him, they constantly ask him why the worship team is suffering.  A common conversation after the worship service is "What happened today?  The music was really bad."  The thing is, George is an awesome worship leader.  He is a talented worship leader who hears from the Lord and knows what needs to be done.  But when a little mistake happens during a song the people ridicule him about it.  This really messes with George and his confidence.   Let's imagine George has a different perspective of who he is.  George loves himself.  He is filled with self confidence and knows God has gifted him with the talent needed to lead worship.  When mistakes happen during songs, George laughs.  He doesn't care because he knows it was a simple mistake and that he's better than that.   After the worship service people begin telling him how awesome everything was. As for those that still point out his mistakes, George doesn't care because he is confident in himself and doesn't accept anyone's negative view of him. When I was down on myself, over weight, and self condemning, I would jokingly make fun of myself with friends.  I was the funny fat guy that could laugh at myself.  The problem was that I believed and internalized those "jokes" about myself.  I always pointed out my faults in public laughing about them but I would internalize those statements and beat myself up later. Now that I have grown to love myself and have confidence in who I am, even though I screw up sometimes, I don't care anymore.  Very simply because I know I'm awesome and I'm becoming more awesome every day. If I hate myself, think I suck, have zero confidence in who I am, I will only love others as much as I love myself.  I'll treat others the same way I treat myself. If I genuinely love myself and have confidence in who I am than I'll be able to love others in a passionate and healthy way.  If I don't love myself and I need to encourage someone else, I won't be able to because I won't know what to say.  If I don't like myself how could I ever teach someone else to be different than who I am?  Lately I've been a big advocate for the fruit in people lives.  You can tell yourself that you love yourself but if the fruit of your life shows you deal with self-loathing than you really don't love yourself.   At a different time in my life I went through the process of learning to love myself.  When that happened I had to deal with the death of my former self-loathing first.  I had to live through the darkness, pain, and tears of losing my self-loathing self.  I'm reminded of the verse that says "Joy comes in the morning."  And the Joy did come.  I walked through those nights of loneliness and then woke to the joy, love, and happiness that comes with loving myself.  Going back to the verses above.  The Common English Bible doesn't say "you should love your neighbor as yourself."  It says "you WILL love your neighbor as yourself."   Begin loving yourself the way Jesus loves you and know that you're awesome. -Cheers.