I struggle with feeling like I’m not good enough. Plain and simple like that; straight to the point. On a normal everyday bases, I struggle with this when I get on instagram, or while walking down the street. I might see someone that is doing better than me, someone with better hair, or someone with a prettier smile. We come across people that just seem to be doing 10 times better than us and ultimately we may believe they matter more. We all struggle with this and even if you say you don’t, at some point in your life, you have compared yourself to someone else. We tend to view our personal value as the things we have done, the things we don’t have, and the things others say about us. All those things can led to feelings of shame, guilt, and regret. Those are three factors that can easily destroy your minds perception of yourself. If we do this day to day with other people like us, then imagine what happens when we think of God and then think of ourselves. God is holy and He is perfect in every way. We could absolutely never measure up to Him. We aren’t suppose too and I believe here is where the problem lies when people say “Me go to church? Oh no girlfriend, I would burst into flames the moment I step through the door. Do you know all the things I’ve done? God would never allow me into church!” Those are real words, spoken by a real person that I once invited to go to church with me. Sad that they had this perception of themselves and God. If they only knew how loving and forgiving our Father really is.

What determines our personal value?

Imagine living your life, feeling insignificant because you are 25 and have yet to start your career. Or imagine feeling insignificant because you are 30 and have yet to get married and start a family. Oh boy! Imagine the stuff your friends and family are going to say about you…Lordy, Lord. Performance and self-esteem. That is what both of those things weight heavily on. But can I tell you that YOUR personal value doesn’t come from the things you’ve accomplished or the things you have yet to accomplish. It actually comes from a place much deeper than that; it comes from within. It comes from understanding who you belong to. We base our self worth on the things we can see, instead of on the love from the One we can’t see. I can’t count the number of times I’ve compared myself to a instagram model, asking myself why I didn’t look like her. I truly believed that if I looked like those girls, my worth would go up. It’s sad. I spent years with this kind of mentality and it only made me more miserable. I still felt that I needed to do more to make myself matter. What was the next trend I had to follow, or when did I need to post my next selfie to get a bunch of likes…that would determine if my value was high right? Want to know when I truly discovered my personal value? It happened when I picked up a book called the Bible. When I decided to follow this ‘Jesus’ fellow that everyone was raving about. So, remember when I said that our true value comes from within? 

“God is within her, she will not fall”

Psalm 46:5

This applies to you to boys. But my point here is, our true value, the one that should mean the most to us, is living inside of us. It is literally stated in the Bible and if that verse isn’t convincing enough then lets try this one:

“You are utterly beautiful, my dearest; there’s not a single flaw in you”

Song of Songs 4:7

Again, that applies to you as well boys. It is stated in the Bible, that we will not fall because He is with us. And while we might see many flaws, He sees none. So forget comparing yourself to that Instagram model, or that person you saw walking down the street. Your value doesn’t come from trying to look or be like them, it comes from someone that sees perfection despite every single one of your flaws. If you matter in His eyes, then shouldn’t that be enough?

A sparkling diamond vs. A black backdrop

Imagine this comparison: a sparkling diamond, against a black backdrop. That diamond sure is going to shine huh? That is kinda what happens when we sinners come face-to-face with God’s ultimate purity. God’s holiness just seems so defined compared to everything we lack. I believe that is what happened with the person I invited to church. They compared their sinful ways to God’s ultimate goodness. They saw themselves as the black backdrop and God as the sparkling diamond. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure everyone of us has thought that way as well because at the end of the day we are all sinners. We have all done things that just don’t add up to Godly traits. We have done things that will have us want to walk away from Him because our ways and His ways just don’t go together. Despite how we might view ourselves compared to God, here is one of his many beautiful attributes:

“God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God”

2 Corinthians 5:21

He knew that we would always be sinners. We will never be pure enough, honest enough, or sinless enough. No amount of time spent at church will ever take that away. (Sorry to break it to you) Unfortunately, it is in our nature to sin. So thinking that all these ‘bad’ things you do now or have done, are a reason to not be allowed to get close to Him…….is completely wrong. That is why he sent Jesus. You are loved and you are forgiven and that is all you need to know. That is absolutely all you need to realize how much you truly matter. So again I ask, where do you get your self-worth from? I get mine from this ‘Jesus’ fellow, He is pretty awesome.

-Brigette