"...Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you..."
--Isaiah 43:3(NIV)
One of my favorite parts of the movie, The Help, is when Aibileen tearfully says goodbye to her young charge, Mae, after being terminated. She kneels down to the toddler and says, "Do you remember what I taught you?" Mae recites her memorized sing-song mantra, "You is smart. You is kind. You is important." This little one had been taught her value.
How do you value yourself? How do you value others? These are relevant and important questions to consider because value effects everything in our lives from decisions to relationships.
Value is not based upon race, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. It is not determined by your background, your education, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, on the house in which you live. It is not based upon self-evaluation or the subjective and judgmental appraisal of others. A truthful, untainted, and unbiased assessment of our value can only be found in the word of God. God said in Genesis 1 that everything he made was good. He also said, in His eyes, we are precious and honored and loved (Isaiah 43:3). Therefore, we are people of value and significance.
So, the ultimate question is how do we value God and His word? What is His worth, meaning, and importance in our lives? Do we value His word as an abiding, unfailing truth? Do we value that in His eyes, our value does not change or depreciate? Do we value the truth that He can never love us any more or any less than He does right now? Do we value that He is not influenced by the negative perception of others or our own negative perception of ourselves? Consider Moses (Exodus 4:10) or Gideon (Judges 6:15). Even David had little value in his family's eyes, yet that did not stop God from anointing him as King of Israel (I Samuel 16).
How we esteem Him in our hearts will determine how we value ourselves, one another, our choices, decisions, relationships, and interaction with those whom we encounter and interface with on a daily basis.
--Isaiah 43:3(NIV)
One of my favorite parts of the movie, The Help, is when Aibileen tearfully says goodbye to her young charge, Mae, after being terminated. She kneels down to the toddler and says, "Do you remember what I taught you?" Mae recites her memorized sing-song mantra, "You is smart. You is kind. You is important." This little one had been taught her value.
How do you value yourself? How do you value others? These are relevant and important questions to consider because value effects everything in our lives from decisions to relationships.
Value is not based upon race, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. It is not determined by your background, your education, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, on the house in which you live. It is not based upon self-evaluation or the subjective and judgmental appraisal of others. A truthful, untainted, and unbiased assessment of our value can only be found in the word of God. God said in Genesis 1 that everything he made was good. He also said, in His eyes, we are precious and honored and loved (Isaiah 43:3). Therefore, we are people of value and significance.
So, the ultimate question is how do we value God and His word? What is His worth, meaning, and importance in our lives? Do we value His word as an abiding, unfailing truth? Do we value that in His eyes, our value does not change or depreciate? Do we value the truth that He can never love us any more or any less than He does right now? Do we value that He is not influenced by the negative perception of others or our own negative perception of ourselves? Consider Moses (Exodus 4:10) or Gideon (Judges 6:15). Even David had little value in his family's eyes, yet that did not stop God from anointing him as King of Israel (I Samuel 16).
How we esteem Him in our hearts will determine how we value ourselves, one another, our choices, decisions, relationships, and interaction with those whom we encounter and interface with on a daily basis.
