Loving ourselves well [the first step], we come to love the God who made us and is so good to us, a love of gratitude, a second step in love. Getting to know this wonderfully good God who made us, and all else for us, we begin to love God in Godself, for God's sake and not just for our own sake — the third step in love. The final step comes when we come to love even ourselves for God's sake. Drawn up in an intense love of God, we can easily forget ourselves. But we find that God has an intense love for us. And because we want to be united with God in all, one with God we love ourselves.
— M. Basil Pennington, True Self/False Self