The lines from the Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem came into my mind this morning as I was sitting with the Lord and reading through His Word. How do I love Thee, let me count the ways.......?

I must love with the love with which God first loved me; a love that moves, that acts, that has effect. I must love in word and in deed - love because I understand the enormity of the mercy that saved me and the grace that keeps me.

Our culture of course adds its own subtle call - 'make some 'me time'- time to love yourself', all the while presenting me with people who are nothing like me, to whom I can never measure up and who seem to have their lives completely 'put together'.