Ah, a new year. Seems like the old one just started, but here we are in 2023. Traditionally, when the new year starts, folks make resolutions of things they want to change. They resolve to get more exercise, eat healthier, keep their living spaces cleaner, and spend more time with loved ones. There are all manner of things one can resolve to do in the new year, and I am rooting for everyone out there! Whether it’s a formal resolution or just a general desire to be better, I hope you can achieve your goals in 2023!

As for me, what have I resolved to do? I have decided to try to live by God’s greatest commandment: love. It’s hard to do sometimes, but it’s oh so important to our duties as Christians. Christ is love, after all, and the best way to embody his spirit is to love, even those who hurt you. However, there is some part of that love that I struggle with greatly, and a part of that loving commandment that is far too often neglected: loving yourself.

It’s hard to do. On the one hand, you don’t want to fall too far into being sinfully prideful. But on the other, it’s absolutely okay to love and appreciate yourself as a person; you’ll be a better individual for it. In the immortal words of drag artist Ru Paul, “If you don’t love yourself, how you gonna love somebody else?” 

I’ve struggled for years with my identity and with a lack of self-love. I hurt a lot of people during that time, and I will feel guilty about that and regret the pain I caused for the rest of my life. I also regret letting myself suffer for so long. I have found myself taking glimpses in the mirror and just seeing a smile crawl across my face from that one simple act. I am starting to love how I look and who I am and who I am becoming. And that is helping me to love others. I still love my family, even the immediate family that is unsupportive of my transition; loving myself helps me to know I am doing the right thing and let negative comments roll off my shoulders while still providing the grace to give them the space they need to learn. I love my friends, who have become my found family; loving myself helps me to know that they genuinely like spending time with me, that I genuinely like spending time with them, and that we would do anything for each other. And, of course, I love my church and church family; loving myself has made me realize how much I love the fellowship here and all the good that this church does for the wider community, and has made me want to work to give back to it.

So friends, I encourage you to take just a moment each day to love yourself. Say one kind thing about yourself in the mirror. Smile, even when it hurts, just to see that you can be happy. Christ loves you, God loves you, and I love you. You’re worth all the love in the world, and I pray in this new year you all come to realize that. 

~Haley Receveur