Seeking to Return My Love for His Love

"I propose to have no other purpose in all my activities, either interior or exterior, other than the motive of love alone, by constantly asking myself: "Now what am I doing in this action? Do I love God?" If I should notice any obstacle to pure love, I shall take myself in hand and recall that I must seek to return my love for His love." - St. Teresa Margaret

I receive a daily quote/meditation via email and today's quote from St. Teresa Margaret struck a cord in my heart. Man, we can learn so much from the saints! They lived so honestly in their "human-ness" and yet remained so completely saturated in God's love and truth. 

The quote from St. Teresa Margaret hit me today especially after a session of spiritual direction focused on how to improve self-love and gratitude for the person God has made me to be in spirit, mind and body. I think I speak for many women when I say it is a struggle some days to accept who we are- again- in spirit, mind and/or body. I've come to realize that I/we sometimes rely too much on outside resources (i.e. actions I make, outcomes of situations, feedback from friends and family) to build up self-love/worth. When people are not pleased with me, I am not pleased with myself. When a situation turns sour due to a decision I made, I become sour with myself. So I return to the quote above... "What am I doing in this action? Do I love God?" Are the thoughts I have of myself loving of God's creation (me!)? Mmmmm doesn't sound like it ;) If my interior activities are not out of love, how could my exterior activities be loving? I think it's probably like putting mud in an engine to fuel a truck when you're trying to help someone move...  You're trying to help by offering a truck to move all of their stuff, but the truck isn't going to run very far, therefore, not helping at all! haha... ok maybe that's a stretch. But you get my point. We must learn to love ourselves through our internal activities and feed ourselves TRUTH in order to 1. return God's love that He freely gives us 2. appreciate the love He freely gives us and 3. to purely love others. So howww do we feed ourselves truth from day to day? Of course, prayer and scripture. My spiritual director also suggested I make a list of things I like about myself and choose one item each day to thank God for throughout the day. A friend told me she was told to look in the mirror each day and tell yourself that God loves you. We were made in the image and likeness of God, so diving into God's truth and loving ourselves is in fact loving God himself! My spiritual director said that if we are completely focused on God and truly believe in His love for us, we will have no reason for fear, jealousy, envy, anxiety, etc because we will be satisfied with God's beautiful creation (that's you and me!).

I love the last part of that quote that reads "I shall take myself in hand"... I picture picking myself up off the floor and going for a walk, hand-in-hand with myself, as a gentle mother or father parents a child and tries to help them learn from mistakes. I pray that all of us might find a peaceful path to walk, hand-in-hand with ourselves, as we seek to "return [our] love for His love" through gratitude of that love and His creativity in making you and me.