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.

…
*Repost October 2016*

Sometimes I think people (including me) miss the point. They miss the point of beauty. They miss the point of admiration, of affirmation. So often I see half-naked selfies, pouting selfies, or selfies drawing attention to purely physical (and often fake) characteristics. I wonder whether these people (mostly girls) know who they are. Do they know that they’re wildly treasured, unendingly loved and passionately pursued? I look at these photos and feeds with an increasingly broken heart and can’t help feeling that, maybe, they’re searching for who they are through shallow attention and flattering affirmation.

And maybe that’s just it. Google defines ‘characteristic’ as: a feature or quality belonging typically to a person, place, or thing and serving to identify them. *Gasp for a moment* Are we posting half naked pictures because that’s who we think we are? Or worse, who we hope other people will think we are? If so, we’ve fallen far from who we were made to be.

We were never meant to be a carnal (purely physical) people. We were designed for Heaven, for eternity and for God Himself. Whenever we degrade ourselves, our bodies and our very identities, to believing that who we are is how we feel or how other people feel about us, we’ve completely missed what God created us for. When God designed beauty, and specifically the female race who are designed to embody beauty,  He did it to connect us with Him and gloriously display one of His attributes. God is beauty. When we look at a sunset, a snow peaked mountain, a yellow autumn leaf or a a person who we perceive to be especially beautiful (I say ‘perceive’ because we are ALL beautiful: no exceptions) we are actually seeing God. As Romans 1 says, all Earthly beauty, wonder and glory is designed to irrefutably point to Him. And so are we.

When we use these glorious God-given bodies to point to ourselves and draw away from Him, I’m sorry to say it, but we’re breaking His heart. And this doesn’t just go for selfies, how we dress or even how we act; it also goes for how our hearts respond to God and the world around us. When we forget that we are accepted, beloved, adored, and wildly celebrated (more than any Insta feed could), we have to look for it elsewhere. But, you will never be loved by anyone more than God loves you. You will never be admired by anyone (No matter how many gorgeous pic you post) more than your Father admires you. You will never feel more acceptance and freedom from anyone else (Not even from that guy you crush on) than from the God who will daily and eternally affirm and define you.

This isn’t a hate on selfies, dressing nicely or wanting attention. Those things can be good if they’re directed toward our Father (Not sure about the selfie though… jokes…. but really). But what I’m asking is, “Why?”. Why do we feel the need to draw attention to ourselves. Why do we seem to be searching so desperately for attention? Have we forgotten that we are unendingly and unwavering in God’s gentle gaze? Do we realise how selfish and self-consumed we’re becoming? Do we realise that, in every moment of shallow-attention-seeking-self-pity, we’re robbing ourselves of the joy we were designed for when we find our purpose in God?

I think it’s time for us to love well. To speak up when we see hurt, confusion and perversion of God’s design. To be the friends and the people we need around us. I want, and I know my Father wants, this generation to know their worth, their beauty and their identity, but it won’t happen if we continue believing the lie that we need our statuses (or even our friends) to reflect our value. It won’t. And never will do. Only the One who knows you best will ever be able to tell you your worth. And you can’t entice Him into loving you more, you can’t provoke Him to it and you can’t make Him stop.

So, for once, rest. Just be.

Stop searching for love in all the wrong places and know that right here, right now, you are loved more than you could ever want or imagine.

Start living, start loving. And stop pretending.