Loving ourselves?

So I have many interests (it's easy to fascinate me, to be honest those sparkly sun catcher things kind of fascinate me). One of those interests is health and wellness. I read a couple newsletters on the subject, and lately I've seen a lot of articles on loving ourselves more.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like this has become an ever increasing focus of the health movement. Loving ourselves. Putting ourselves first to better help others. Doing what we want to do.

But I wonder if that is really our problem.

When John the Baptist's disciples came to him, concerned over the ministry Jesus was doing because it was leading people away from John, he replied that was the way it was supposed to be (John 3:25-36). He told them that, through this ministry "He must increase, but I must decrease," (John 3:30, NKJV).

I may be taking this a little out of context here, but I think this verse applies to our lives as well. Jesus has given each of us a ministry, to work for His glory with our lives. As we work for His glory, to show people that He is the Way to forgiveness, redemption, and happiness, shouldn't we think less about ourselves, and more about Him?

Shouldn't we focus less on our wants, and more on His? Less on our desires, and more on His? Less on our plans, and more on His?

I am definitely not saying we should hate ourselves, or even dislike ourselves (after all, God created us, I'm pretty sure He wants us to appreciate His creation). I don't think there is anything wrong with loving yourself and taking care of yourself, even pampering yourself when the occasion is right. But I wonder if the reason why we're seeing a plethora of advice on loving ourselves, why it seems to be getting harder to love ourselves, is because we have our main focus all wrong?

What if, instead of focusing on loving ourselves more, we focus on loving God more? What if, instead of focusing on doing what we want, we focused on doing what He wants?

Maybe we have a hard time loving ourselves because we spend way too much time thinking about ourselves, increasing ourselves, when it should be the other way around.

Maybe, if we decreased, and allowed God to increase in our lives, we'd find it's not an issue. After all, if we're focused on God, we'll have very little time to worry about ourselves.

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