“You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”

Leviticus 19:17-18

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Are you still supposed to love your neighbor as yourself

When the kind of love you give yourself

Is the tough kind that makes you cry?

It doesn’t seem to me that that’s the kind of love

That God intended.

If you’re supposed to love you neighbor as yourself

But all the love you have for yourself is

Actually anger or pity or shame

How is that a gift that anyone wants?

How do you love your neighbor as yourself

If you don’t love yourself?

That’s the hardest law there is, I think.