Monday Motivational - Value: You > Me

                                                                                  Value: You > Me
 
      Welcome back to another Monday Motivational! I hope that last weeks look into what we learned during our Mid-Winter retreat was helpful and insightful when obstacles arose throughout the week. Today I would like to talk with you about something we have all most likely dealt with at some point—personal value. The American idea of value we all learn as kids is that everyone’s value is equal at the start (born into freedom in the land of opportunities), but as an individual you can work towards greatness, success, fame, or wealth and eventually make your value greater than the value of others. As believers we know that this mentality could not be further from the truth.
 
      I was blessed to be raised in a church and in a family that showed me I was valuable in their eyes and in the eyes of God. However, I was also foolish enough to fall for satan’s trap of comparison and acceptance on an almost everyday basis. It is tough to go from hearing about your value in God’s eyes to being completely rejected by your peers. In the eyes of my classmates, teammates, and other everyday acquaintances I was a below average kid. This constant belittlement of my personal value made it difficult for me to agree with what I was hearing in Sunday school, bible studies, and from my family. Because of this constant feeling of less than I have grown up to have little by means of self-esteem and self worth. Of course when I reflect back now I understand that I was searching for value in the wrong places, but my opinion of myself, that has been molded out of years of constant rejection and feeling less than, will not simply change overnight.
 
      It is important for us to understand that we are valuable to God and the opinions of others is just satan trying to get a stronghold on our view of personal value. We were made in God’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27) and we are loved by Him with an unconditional, forever enduring, love (Psalm136:2). Unlike the American way of working harder to create more value in yourself to broaden the space between you and those “less valuable”, a believer works harder to draw near to God and along the way we will have a more clear understand of His opinion on our value and how His love for us does not differ from His love for others. Our goal should not be to show those around us that we are valuable and they are not. The goal is to show others that they are valued by God and in humility express to them that they are more valuable than yourself.
 
       In Paul’s letter to the saints in Philippi he says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3). Hearing this growing up I thought it would be the easiest way to show others I was a believer. My view of self was drastically low, so it would not take much for me to treat others as more significant then myself. The reality of this statement is that Paul was not challenging the people of Philippi to count others as if they are more significant than their own opinion of self, but to count others, in humility, as if they are more significant than God’s opinion of themselves. This drastically changes the challenge, but if we can teach this to the current youth we will see a generation rise up that not only understands God’s value put on their own life but also the value of others and the importance of showing others they are valued in the eyes of God. A generation with this mentality could truly make a difference. A generation with this mentality could bring glory to God!

I hope that you have an amazing week!

​Happy Monday!