You Have Value

     This is going to be a long subject to discuss so I hope you have some time to take a seat and reflect with me. Do we realize that we have value? If we are told otherwise it's a lie! Jesus says in Matthew 10: 31 "Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." In order for this to mean more I should probably share to you some struggles I have faced in life. As well as many people all over the world I was bullied from the very first day of kindergarten all the way to 7th grade. I probably was talked about and made fun of all the way to senior year but at least I did not know about it. I was rejected from the start. You may ask why? I honestly have no idea. I never felt that I was a terrible person. I thought I was easy to get along with. I tried to be nice with no success. I think it's really stupid that most people are rejected because they are different. When I say different I only mean different interests, personality, style, etc. That is nothing too drastic, is it? Yet it produces drastic behavior from people who don't understand. People just never understood me, and still don't. God created me shouldn't that be enough to prove that I matter? When I was in school I really was afraid of people's opinions of me, looking back it probably was the start of me being a "people pleaser." A people pleaser is some one who does anything just to be on someone's good side. I wanted to make sure everyone liked me and when someone didn't, it tore me to pieces. I had this mindset for so long that I brought it in the church with me. If the preacher said "raise your hands," I rose my hands. If he said "run," I'd run. If he said anything, I'd do it. It was never in my heart to do those things, I was just doing it to please people. Why? Because if I didn't I was afraid people would think that I was going back on God. God did not get any glory out of me doing those things, because it wasn't from my heart. I've spent the majority of my life not living my true self. So back to my school days, I was called stupid. A LOT! I had a difficult time in school because I could not concentrate and fully comprehend things. I feel like a lot of it had to do with the negative environment that I was in, because I am smart yet there was a lot of pressure so it hindered me from applying myself. Anyway, people made fun of the questions I would ask the teacher when I did not understand something. I hated when we had to pass our papers to other class mates to grade. Why couldn't the teacher do it?! If it had to do with math, there would be a lot of times when I would get either every question wrong or most of them wrong. Then they would pass my paper around to every one and laugh at how stupid I was. They would always say to me, "It's not that hard." All of that pressure I was put under to be a "genius" in their eyes actually made my learning worse and not better. I've had presentations where we had to be timed. So we would try to talk at a certain pace in order to stay within the time frame, not too short and not too long. There was one particular presentation that embarrassed me so bad. It was my turn to talk and apparently I was talking to fast and someone in my group came over to me, took my papers out of my hands, and started over presenting my half of the project. It took everything in me to hold my tears back because I didn't want to cry in front of everyone. I felt like I was not capable of anything. Even my own "friends" at the time said I was stupid! So being told that so much I was devalued. I accepted that lie and believed that I was stupid. I actually kept up the trend and started calling myself stupid. They didn't even have to tell me anymore, I did it for them. I was told that I was ugly and fat. I used to be an over eater because I was dealing with a lot outside of school. So, yeah, I was a bit over weight. I was devalued. I was told that no one would love me enough to marry me, just because I liked cats. Apparently if I like cats it automatically seals my life into forever being an old cat lady. I only have two it's not like I have 20. I was devalued. Someone even told me that I have an odd laugh. Really?! I can't have joy and laugh without one comment being made? I was devalued. I was falsely accused of talking about people, when I never said one thing about them. I was devalued. I even had teachers who made fun of what I believed with the students!! I was devalued. Some of these things happened in school and outside of school settings. I truly believed that I was worthless, complete trash. We have no idea how powerful the words that we speak are. One negative word has the power to bring death to someone. Therefore, one positive word can bring life to someone. I'm not sharing these things that I faced in the past for sympathy, it's only to build a foundation for what is important. I don’t need sympathy, because I have been made whole by Jesus Christ. These experiences I faced were beneficial for me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but every word spoken to me that was originally created to destroy me actually became my stepping stones, by the grace of God. "Jordan, you're so stupid," (one step up), "You're going to die a lonely cat lady," (two steps up), "you're laugh is weird," (three steps up). I think of this song that says, "I'm coming up, on the rough side, of the mountain." I didn’t realize that God was taking me higher and higher in those moments. I've grown to love this verse in Psalm 139 "I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well." Guess what? I HAVE VALUE!!! It's only by the grace of God that I am smart, I am beautiful, I am loved! If I don't matter to anyone else that's fine, I matter to my Creator and to me that "is worth more than many sparrows" (or money, popularity, a husband, etc). I say this for everyone's benefit, because I know someone can relate to me. We have value. We matter. Just our very existence is proof of that. God took the time to create us so that must mean something. If we created something, that product would be worth something to us. We would cherish it. It's the same with God. Remember in Genesis when God created everything? What did He say after He made something? It was good; but what did He say after He created man? "behold it was very good." We are so loved that God "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame…" (Hebrews 12:2). We are the joy that was set before Him. We should be reminded that God has a certain quality about Him called foreknowledge (awareness of something before it happened or exists). He saw us believing Him, accepting this gospel. He saw the positive affects that His sacrifice would make. He found joy in doing so. John 15 says, "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends…" We are his friends that He willing lay down His life for. We were worth His life. If He had to do it all over again, He would. God says in Isaiah 43:2, "Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee:" We are loved. That is truth. God only speaks that truth. We should never believe what people may say about us. They think they know us but only God truly knows our hearts. He knows us better than we know ourselves. I've said this before but I will say it again, we do not find our identity in others we find it in the Word of God. It is very simple. All we have to do is choose to accept it. That’s the problem we have. Make the choice to listen to Jesus and what He knows about rather than what others THINK about us. I look back on my life and I am amazed to see the change in me. I have never felt more like me than I do now. All it took was me going quiet and listening to the LORD. Find a quiet place and stay there a while and let God tell you who you truly are. We should be proud of who we are and more importantly who created us. He was pleased to breathe life into us. Isaiah 43:7 says this, "Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." We were made for the glory of God. How beautiful is that? I may be repeating myself but that is alright it needs to be emphasized. Any negative comment that is directed towards you is a stepping stone for you to climb higher and higher above it all. It is meant to shape a certain nature in you. A nature that those other people will not have. It's what makes us unique. Romans 9 says that "we are more than conquerors through him that loved us," we are more than conquerors because Jesus already defeated ALL things at Calvary. We didn't have to do anything, He did it all and us simply believing every Word of God and "whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God" (1 John 4:15) is our victory. We become victorious through Him, not in ourselves. We have value and we should never, ever, ever, forget that. If God said it that settles it. Period. Done. I'm sure people will still put us down at times, but we have one duty that Jesus command when that happens and it is this, "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). We should never stoop to their level. Pray for them because they are just as broken as we are and they don't realize it yet. We should also never forget that Jesus died for them too. We need to stop looking in the mirror and pointing out "flaws," Jesus does not make anything with "flaws." We are beautiful and it's time to start realizing that. Did we ever think that the comments we tend to make like, "I'm so fat, I'm so ugly today, I'm such an idiot, etc." grieves God? How does it make Him feel when we are standing in front of the mirror saying these awful things about His creation. Let's make this more real. Here is an example for those who have kids, what if you were walking past your child's bathroom and they are picking themselves apart. They say how ugly their hair is, how they want to look like a celebrity or the popular girl/boy in school, they don't like their eyes, they think their nose is too big, etc. How would that make you feel if your child wasn't happy in their own skin? How much more the Creator of all things when He hears His child say the same things? Let us not grieve our Father with this nonsense. God doesn't make junk. Remember Psalm 139, we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." We have value. We are smart because God created our brains, so it automatically means your smart. We have value. Let's learn to only listen to Jesus. When we know who we are in Him and gain that confidence then all these other comments people will make will just bounce right off of us. Let us be careful never to say one negative thing about ourselves. Words are very powerful. When we do something that normally would lead to us calling ourselves stupid, instead lets say that "I wasn't thinking" or something of that nature. When we look at ourselves in the mirror we shouldn’t examine ourselves, just take one look say "thank you Jesus for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works" and move on with our lives. Let us start thanking Jesus for what he has given us. I used to say I couldn’t carry a tune and when I said this to someone I never heard the end of it. They told me, "I never want to hear you say that you can't do something, you can. You're singing tomorrow." (I laugh every time I think about it) I was scared to death but I did it with the help of God. I still don't think I sound great but I am working on not focusing on that and just simply, "make a joyful noise unto the LORD" (Psalm 98). It may not be pretty but it's a joyful noise that I know blesses God. I'm still learning to accept the fact I'm not singing for people, I sing for God. So if you don't like it that's not my problem. Anyway, never devalue others or yourself. Remember that you have value. So lift up your head and carry yourself like a child of a King, because you are. God Bless You.