Valued and Loved

Isn’t it amazing the things that shape us?  Major events and everyday situations affect our personality.  We internalize the smallest things and learn to survive situations that should tear us apart.  Those major events of death and loss of health create such an emotional upheaval that forever changes us.  We learn to live with the event or without the person.  It’s emotional trauma is seared so deeply in our life the scar can be felt internally on our heart.

Sometimes we are shaped by events people foster onto us without a choice.  A childhood situation affects the adult that we become.  It could be negative or positive, but our self worth starts young and builds.  Our security is found in our parents and our home life.  Whether it is a happy secure home or a home that is unstable either with issues of financial security or parental support.  We look to those that are suppose to nurture us to tell us our value and who we should be.  We take that outlook of ourselves into adulthood and we either believe them or overcome that snapshot of how we see ourselves in that time in our life.

However sometimes our insecurities flashback.  I love positive comments.  I wish I took to heart the positive comments that I’m given, but the negative ones are the ones that I contemplate on more and remain with me the longest.  Why do I hang on to those?  It doesn’t even have to be words.  Sometimes it’s being ignored or a rude facial expression from people who don’t matter in my life.  I am reminded from people who do matter that I am worthy and deserving of love.As adults we gravitate toward relationships that add to our life.  We look for love and acceptance in our relationships.  Our eternal soul longs for it.  We either continue straight ahead or change course, but it’s a forward movement.  Luckily, with life experiences and education, we find our true sense of self and work toward fulfilling a purpose.  We love and are loved in return.

The people we surround ourselves with in our lives make us better people and they lift us up, but ultimately it is God that transforms us.  He tells us that we are forgiven and loved.  That I’m loved and worth enough that He sacrificed His son for me.  It is that which makes us overcomers

Everyone has a story to tell and it becomes a blessing to the person hearing it.  I’m amazed to know so many strong women who are ‘overcomers!’  I admire their strength of character and their faith in God.  They are parents who have tried to give their children a childhood that surpassed their own and to provide them with a loving, stable, God centered home.  When my child looks back on his life, I hope that his dad and I provided enough stability for him, but I hope he looks to God for his final self worth.

My church these last few months has been going through a ‘toxic emotion’ series that concluded that although we can’t change the things in the past that have happened to us, we can control how we respond to those emotions that make us raw.  We can reach out to God’s word for guidance and prayer for God to provide us with His strength.  It is up to us to reach out and take the gift that Jesus provided and to share that gift.

As a teacher, I influence many young lives.  I pray that I impart daily to someone that they are valued and loved and that they do matter.  I pray I remember that I am shaping lives in small ways that affects how a child views his or her self.

Go smile at someone today.  Give a sincere compliment and brighten someone’s day.  Make a phone call to someone that is experiencing loneliness or a change in their life.  Invite someone out for a coffee or a walk and do it with love.  We all need to know we are valued and loved.  God created us to be!

I love and value you. . . Because you are worthy!