Forgive

Only after we can learn to forgive ourselves can we accept others as they are because we don't feel threatened by anything about them which is better than us.
Stephen Covey

How many people do you know that make you feel threatened? I think most of the time we never think about this aspect of our relationship to the people around us. Our ego is constantly comparing our strengths and weaknesses to those of other people. In real life there is always going to be some aspect of any other person that is better than the equivalent aspect of yourself. There is absolutely nobody who you are totally better than, just as there is nobody who you are totally worse than. So whoever you are talking about, even if it is the bum in the downtown street corner, there will be something about him that is better than the equivalent part of yourself.

We can only really love other people when we stop these constant comparisons. And the truth is that we can only really love ourselves when that happens too. It is only when we forgive ourselves for having weaknesses and acting from them that we can truly love ourselves. We have to accept ourselves just the way we are, with all our weaknesses and negatives, before we can effectively begin to do something about those things. We have to learn to accept that we don't have to be perfect to be good enough because life is a process of learning and improving and there is nothing that is perfect.

Imagine what it would be like if you didn't feel threatened by anybody at all. I have found that if I dislike anyone who has not consciously attacked me, it is almost always because I am jealous of them. I feel threatened because they have something, or can do something, that I feel I cannot have or do. I am comparing myself to them and finding myself wanting. It is very difficult to completely accept all of our faults as being okay but that is what we must do. Only after we can learn to forgive ourselves can we accept others as they are because we don't feel threatened by anything about them which is better than us. Only then can we truly feel love.