OK here is your 1st problem (unless your file has a typo?)...
What I would like is for cell D2 to look at Cell C2 and if C2 is lower then D2
You are testing a cell to see if "itself" is less than "itself".

This is causing whats called a Circular Reference Error, and we try to avoid those as much as possible

If that was a typo in your file, what was your expected answer? (the file shows 7)