Thank you (((Gabe))) for an execellent post. It is important to love ourselves.
I once heard a preacher speaking about Jesus's message to "love your neighbor as yourself".Which is a definate implication that it is good to love ourselves. This preacher went to on to say we will love others as we love ourselves and reminded that when we let others take advantage of us that this is not loving for us or them because we are being violated and teaching the "neighbor" that it is okay to violate.