The Price Of Worth

Worth.

Everyone, since the beginning of time, has struggled with the emotions of feeling worthy or "good enough". Eve was tempted by Satan to disobey God; He filled her head with lies, saying she would find more "worth" and be powerful, as powerful as God, if she would just take a bite of the fruit. Of course, as it always goes, the price of searching for worth outside of Christ is quite costly. 

Now most of the time these feelings have to do with special people in our lives, so I will use those relationships as examples in this post. 

We search our whole lives for worth and acceptance in our boyfriends/girlfriends, husband/wife; we think of these people as our savior; someone who can make us feel better. The only problem with this is that we begin to put those people on such a high pedestal, put so many expectations on them being nothing but perfect 24/7, that we begin to suck the very life from them and end up causing them to feel unworthy of anything. 

People cannot fix us. Our boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife cannot be the perfect person we have in our mind. The more we expect perfection from them the more they will let us down. The kind of expectations people put on relationships is the very reason relationships are struggling everyday.
See, our problem is that we have let the world brain wash us (for lack of better words) into thinking relationships are about US. This, of course, not being God's intention, but we go on our merry little way listening to everything the world whispers in our ears. They tell us our significant other should always do what we want, when we want it if they are really a good mate. If they don't meet up to that standard, we just toss them away and try someone else. Now, I don't condone divorce, it's makes me very sad, but I will not cast someone out or shun them because they have made that decision. The thing is, the lies we hear, how often things begin to take place, it's all part of Satan's plan. He says it's all normal...part of everyday life. "It will happen with every marriage eventually," "who wants to stay with one person for forever? You need to keep your options open or have an open marriage" we are told. Once we no longer feel like someone gives us worth or makes us feel important, we drop them like a bag of trash. 

FACT- We will never be able to find worth if we keep searching in people instead of Christ. 

We're not surprised people have been married five different times? When a movie star is caught having another affair?  Why? Because we've been told for so many years that we should search for someone who makes us feel good and soar high, and when we no longer have those "fire works" we are supposed to dump the baggage and move one. 

It might sound like a cliche Christian speech, but nevertheless, it's the plain and simple truth. Finding God is the only way we will find what man has been looking for since he was first created. When a person knows they are loved and accepted, they will do just about anything for them. But see, to find worth, acceptance, love and joy, we must look only to the One who created us; not the ones who were created. I mean, think about it. Whereas the world rejects when we no longer meet up to their standards, the God of the universe MADE you. He doesn't only want you. He CREATED you; just the way you are. He loves you for who you are, not what you can do for Him. 

If people would make finding God more of a priority than finding worth...they would see exactly what they're looking for has been right in front of them. 

Don't blame your spouse, significant other, parents or friends for not having the self worth you felt they should have made you feel. It's not their place. God already thinks you're priceless, and though you can't always feel His presence in your life He has promised He will never leave you. He will always forgive when asked to do so, will always love unconditionally. That is more than any human can ever give. 

When I was a little girl our bible studies mainly consisted of my dad reading bible verses then proceeding to ask questions (normally with one word answers). Most of the time my siblings and I would answer "God!" whether we actually thought that was the answer or not...we always told my parents "God is the answer most of the time, so if we always answer that then we will almost always be right". "Faith like a child" as Jesus said. If I would have simply kept that mindset into my teen/adult years I would have had better practice having the right answers for life's questions. 

No matter what your struggle, no matter how hard your life is right now, no matter how low you think you've gotten; God is the answer. We have to stop looking elsewhere for the answer we know is the right one. To see why God allowed pain in our life might possibly be something we won't ever find the answer to. But I guarantee you, down the road you will be able to look back and thank God for growing you so much through something seemingly tragic. "His ways are higher than our ways". 

Our worth is found in HIM alone.

Taking Time

Today marks many years past since that dreadful day the twin towers went down. It made me think through some of my choices I've made (and others I thought I needed to make) recently.

The people who died in those buildings had lives. They all had plans to go on vacation, go see family, write a letter to a past friend, take life slower, give their husband/wife/child a hug, say I'm sorry, get married...the list goes on and on. They all had plans to do things that were put to an abrupt end.

There are so many things in my life that I worry about or make a big ordeal...when in reality, I may not have the next 5 years of my "5 year plan" to live. I may not even have tomorrow. There's a saying that all procrastinators know; "why put off today what you can put off tomorrow?" Most people think this way most of the time, but it's very sad. WHY put it off? Whatever it is. Why put off so many things that are more important than what we spend our time doing right now?

It seems most of the time, we put off all of the important things and spend our time doing things not so important when you look at them in the long run.

One thing we see about Jesus throughout the bible, is that He was intentional. He had a plan for His life, but He also knew it wouldn't be too long. When He had something to do, He did it. He didn't put off talking to the women at the well for a "better" time when it was more convenient for Him. He knew she needed Him that day, so He made time for her.

There are so many times when I say "someday" I'll finish _____ or "someday" I'll learn more about ______ or "someday" I'll decide what my life should be like. Someday may not come for me. It's hard to think about, but it's very real. My life isn't promised to go on until I'm 70-80 years old.

There's a song by a group that I love, because it always reminds me just how little time I have here on this earth. The chorus says, "If today was your last day, and tomorrow was too late. Could you say goodbye to yesterday? Would you live each moment like your last? Leave old pictures in the past, donate every dime you have?" (Nickelback "If Today Was Your Last Day")

If today WAS my last day and I was knew about it...would I be a little more kind, generous, loving or patient? Would I make sure I treated people better since I wouldn't have another chance?

I shouldn't have to start truly living my life this way because it was my last day. I should be living my life that way because it's how I'm SUPPOSED to live it. I may not ever get another chance to shine Jesus to someone, tell my family I love them, or tell a friend I've hurt that I'm sorry.

We shouldn't put off today what we should have done yesterday.

Today may be our last day...Never forget.

Watchful Eyes

This world has come to a point where people no longer feel a deep love for one another. It has been happening since time began, but people never really pay attention to the big picture.

All we do is judge according to our own standards instead of showing others God can and will love them right where they are. Repentance through faith is the only thing they need. Preachers preach, teachers teach...but why haven't we seen a difference? Perhaps because the very root of our lot in life has been removed. The love Jesus gave throughout the earths existence, giving chance after chance, gift after gift; and we still won't show the whole story to those around us.

I believe with all my heart that to receive everlasting life from God requires repentance. Honest to goodness, old fashioned asking for forgiveness. Putting one's faith in Someone they cannot see and trusting that He holds the only key to heaven.

How do we expect to help people understand the love of God by simply giving them what we feel His judgement should be? Telling a woman her shirt is too low, skirt is too short, a man he shouldn't look at women with lust and immoral desires, teens their music is wicked, parents they don't have enough restrictions on their kids...this will mean nothing to them without telling them why they should have the desire to change.

For a person to have the desire to do right, it would take more than any human has within himself. Because there is no good in man; not even a little.

What is needed, then, for a man to want to please a God he may or may not even believe in? Passion. Any human you ask will tell you they want to have something to live for. Something they would give their life for because they believe in it so much. To have that kind of passion would take something very big...something GOD big.

Here's the thing. We cannot expect to show people a life they want if the only thing we ever do is talk about how much better we are than them. You see, Christians have become so judgmental that people no longer want to listen to what we have to say. They hear us talking about the love of God but never see it for themselves.

I know I have talked about this quite often, but it is because I see it as a problem in my own life. I see someone with tattoos, a few extra piercings, a style of dress I don't agree with...whatever it may be...and I may not say anything out loud, but I sure go through some words in my head. I begin comparing my lifestyle to theirs and how I'm glad I don't "look like that." Whereas I understand there comes a point where someone is sinning with the way they live, it is my job to (LOVINGLY) point out what they are doing as wrong, but NOT my job to run all over them or treat them like trash if they don't "listen" to me or "change" for me.

There is a point where we all have to realize God made laws and guidelines, but He left many things UN-specified down to a T so He wouldn't have a bunch of cult-ish "just like them" people walking around. Honestly, what good would it do to have billions of people exactly the same traipsing around the earth. Everyone would believe the exact same way, dress the same way, look the same way...sounds more like a world being led by Hitler than a loving God, don't you think?

We should spend more time making sure we are following where God is leading us and less on what we think people's lives should look like according to us. The more we worry about the way others are living their lives, the less time we have to spend on our relationship with Christ. Before we know it, our relationship with Christ is going in a downward spiral and everyone else just thinks we're a bunch of judgmental creeps.

We will always be watched. I've learned it's part of life. People watch other people. But I don't believe it's right to have a lifestyle built on what other people tell you is right and wrong. The way I grew up (or more, the people I spent my time around) watched everything I did. Mainly because of the circumstance I was in; because of that, I have always feared people. I let people down, wasn't good enough, never wore/said/did the right thing. My parents loved me in every way possible, but for other people I didn't always measure up. I became a terrified person who worried about everyone else's opinions and stopped paying attention to what I felt God wanted me to do when I was out in public. This is a very dangerous place to be. I will not purposefully do something to or around someone knowing they will be offended by it, but one thing is a fact: this is my life. I live it for Christ and nobody else. I can be condemned, looked down upon and degraded by other people, but in God's eyes I will always have worth.

The watchful eye is of Christ, not mankind. Pleasing HIM is more important than pleasing THEM. My life is HIS, not THEIRS.

True love. That is the life I want. That is a life filled with Christ.