Love Your Neighbor

Love Your Neighbor

The whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:14

For six months or so, my husband and I had been teaching our two-year-old daughter to say “I love you.” Early in this process, we emphasized the words at bedtime and anytime either of us left the house, hoping to hear those three sweet little words in return.

Also, with her grandparents living more than seven hundred miles away, hearing her say, “I love you” to them seemed like a good way to close the emotional distance between us, and it has become a valuable part of our phone conversations with them. Confession time, though: We had to trick her into saying those words the first few times. The tactic went something like this:

“Guess what?” my husband or I would ask. We would then follow with “I love you.”

Isabelle picked up on that game pretty quickly, answering, “I love you” almost before we could ask the question. Now when we say, “Guess what?” she almost always answers, “You love me,” instead of “I love you.” Perhaps we taught her too well.

When my husband left the house for his seminary class one day recently, he said to her, as usual, “’Bye, Isabelle, I love you.”

Without hesitation, Isabelle shouted in reply, “I love me too!”

Well, she has half of the Golden Rule down. Now, if only we can teach her to love others as much as she loves herself. And, oh yes, if only we can learn that lesson ourselves!

—Lisa Bartelt

Father, I confess that sometimes I love myself too much. Perhaps I learned that lesson too well. Please help me to love others as much as or more than I love myself and to never be shy or hesitant to say to others, as I say to you now, Lord, “I love you.” Amen.