What was that second one again?

Probably the most asked question a couple of thousand years ago. Jesus said the two most important commandments were love God with all your heart, soul and might. And love thy neighbor as you love yourself. Different versions and wordings but the message is the same. It does not matter if you believe in God or not for the purpose of this discussion. Your faith is your business and should remain that way. Most Christians would be on board with Jesus saying you better pay attention to the big guy or all manner of bad things may happen. Got it.
It's this second one that I find so interesting. You don't need to have a God or idol or favorite Deity to do this. You can be agnostic, atheist or just plain apathetic and still follow this advice. So the 64 thousand dollar question is "Why don't we"? Is it that we forget. Most of us have at least one memory that dates back to childhood. We can remember the first time we heard a song or went to a ballgame or concert. First date, yep. Lost virginity, sure. Lost virginity with another person, yep, remember that too. So it's not that we forget.
Maybe our neighbor just isn't as good as we are. Drives a worse car. Kids are not doing great in school. Job seems to be entry level. Argues with his wife or husband a lot. We make take the time to chat on the sidewalk about the heat or cold or football team but do we ever really care about the answers? Do we look at our neighbors as equals? Or are they better than we are? Cul de sac envy is a common occurrence. Can we really love someone who is kicking the crap out of us on the success meter? Don't you secretly hope he backs his Mercedes into his wife's Hummer in the driveway? It's human nature. Let's just skip trying to figure out the why and go for the great hypothetical here.
What would happen to the world if we actually did it? Most of us can't do it for one full day. I dare you to try tomorrow. Treat everyone you come in contact with the way you want to be treated. Love your spouse without conditions. Say hello to people who pass by. Take time out to stop by and offer help to someone you know is struggling. Just one day. Can you do it? God does not have anything to do with this. This is about being a human being. Can you make a day?
If you cannot, you have answered a question of yourself. The reason you can't do it for a day is you don't love yourself. And that is the most common problem we have. We are told all day in many different forms how we screw up or don't know what we are talking about. We are reminded that we should be doing better, making more money, have more friends, more education and on and on. The constant drumming of what we are not or what we should be is spiteful at best and downright evil at it's worst.
So I end with one last question and a repeat of my request. The question is "What if they are wrong about you? What if you are doing just as good or as bad as you should be? Then shouldn't you be proud and love yourself? Love yourself and your neighbor just one day. You can do it!

Till next......