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D-7841

He loves me; he loves me not. He loves me; he loves me not! How many daisy petals did you pull off when you were young, trying to determine if the someone you loved really loved you? I guess we’ve all trashed a few daisies with that little game. I don’t know who invented it, but I doubt its accuracy.

But as grown women—correction, grown people—I think we often pull off the daisy petals in our lives more like this: He loves me; I love me not. He loves me; I love me not! We know God loves us; we’re just not so sure about loving ourselves.

Now, let me hasten to make clear that I am not a believer in much of the self-love psycho-babble that has become so common. The Bible teaches us to love others as ourselves, but we won’t find anything in Scripture that would lead us to focus our lives on loving ourselves. Rather, we are to become a servant to others.

However, I believe many of us don’t really appreciate who we are because of Jesus. As a result, we spend our lives too often in dismal mode because we haven’t learned to bask in the joy and the excitement of who we are as individuals. I’d like to examine this concept, what we might call self-appreciation.

Perhaps our lack of self-appreciation begins with a poor understanding of God’s love for us. One of my favorite verses is Zephaniah 3:17:

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

Can you grasp the beauty of this truth? God—the Creator of all the universe—takes delight in you and rejoices over you with singing! Let your mind dwell on this; listen to God delighting in and rejoicing over you with singing!

It brings to my mind a mother or father singing a lullaby to their child. Can you remember the comfort and security and joy of being that child and hearing that song? I can see the joyful parent singing fun songs with his or her children—Ring Around the Rosie or London Bridge—and the party atmosphere created for that child by the loving, singing parent.

That’s a poor analogy, but can you get a glimpse of your Father God rejoicing over you with singing? He does! Oh, I know you don’t deserve it—that goes without saying. But that doesn’t matter. He rejoices over you with singing because you are his child. Now, will you take that thought with you all day long? I hope you will bask today in the Father’s love for you, for it is real!