Menachem Bluming Muses: Why Your Children Mean So Much to You

When someone cares for your child they are embracing you too because you are expressed in your child. If someone likes you but not your child, that is a contradiction to you. So too with G-d for we are each a child of G-d (Deut. Devarim 14). To love G-d but not the other is a rejection of G-d because each person expresses G-dliness in a unique fashion, a child of G-d. This includes the imperative to love ourselves too. 

Mendel (Menachem) Bluming paraphrased from Hayom Yom

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