So, I’m going to be completely real about something that I’ve been struggling with for a while.

Worth. How we value life. Including our own lives.  We seem to get trapped in this mindset of devaluing both ourselves and the people around us… mostly unintentionally.  The media, and even well meaning friends and family, would have us believe that some of us (if not all of us) are accidents or random chances of nature. This lie goes so deep that it doesn’t just mess with our own self-value, but also the value we place on human life. Let me make myself clear: God does not make mistakes. He doesn’t suddenly go into auto mode and start randomly making babies, realise what He’s done and then go, “Oops, made more than I planned, I’ll just abort some and start over.” Every baby and human, whether they’re a fetus who’s 2 days old, a baby who’s 2 years old or a 60 year old, was made completely intentionally. God hand crafted them, with all the skill and glory in His veins, and gave that human to this world for a divine purpose (Psalm 139:14, Jer. 29:11, Isaiah 64:8). Remarkably, some of us don’t know that, or have forgotten. But this lie of evolution is dangerous. It leads to abortion, suicide, murder, rape. It leads to us experimenting on ourselves with gender reassignment, colour change, nose jobs…. all because we didn’t value who we were at first.  What God, our Father, made us to be. And because we chose to ignore that fact altogether.  

But the truth is, the realisation that we were lovingly created for a purpose is the starting point for the value we put on ourselves and the people around us, for a humane society, for healthy functioning communities, and heck, for world peace. When we look at ourselves in the mirror and feel nothing but disgust and shame, we’re spitting in God’s face; the King of eternity who put His very breath in you and made you in his image (Ezekiel 37:4-14, Job 33:4, Gen. 1:26). 

This is something that I’ve been learning over the past few months (Well, years really!). That I don’t place my value on what others think about me, on what the media says about me, or on what even I say and think about me. The value that I am measured with, and the value that the people around me are measured with, is the value that the Creator, my Father determines. Nothing I think, say or feel can deteriorate or change my value in His eyes. I can only alter it in my own eyes. 

… Guys, this is massive! The revelation that, when we see ourselves and every one else around us through our Father’s eyes, we are all beautiful, purposed, invaluable and adored, yet flawed, human beings enables us to live and love like we are all royalty. We’re all worth time, affection and adoration. Because our Father says we are.

And I choose to believe what He says before anything else the world can throw at me.

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*Repost October 2016*