Thursday, December 2, 2010

Self-Worth Comes From God

"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator -- who is forever praised. Amen."
-- Romans 1:25

I love to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on television every year. I know. I have it on video too. It's just not the same. My eyes always tear up as I grieve for the misfits who just want to be accepted for who they are. I'm thrilled and my heart over-flows when they all get a happy ending.

I see myself in those misfits. Never good enough. Never smart enough. Never pretty enough. Always struggling to be somebody I wasn't because the person I was just wasn't acceptable to the people who were supposed to love me no matter what. No matter how many years have passed, that little girl remains inside me.

We're all like that to some degree. We want to be smart and successful. We want people to like us and respect us and accept us. We want to fit in with the world around us. It's no fun being on the outside, wanting desperately to be a part of the club on the inside.

We believe what other people think about us. We believe the mother who says we aren't loveable. We believe the teacher who thinks we aren't smart enough. We believe the person who rejected us. We believe our past experiences rather than listening to the voice of God, who created and loves us so much.

God created each of us to be unique and special in our own way. We aren't meant to be copies of someone else. We are meant to strive to be like Jesus and to get our self-worth and guidance from God Himself. We belong to Him after all.

We can choose to believe the negative voices around us, the voices that echo Satan's views. Or we can choose to believe God. We can choose to believe we are valuable and worthy and just fine the way we are. In God's world, we aren't misfits. We're children and heirs. We are children of the King and no one can take that away from us! Believe in yourself. God does.