When was the last time that you took stock of your own value and self-worth? The New Year often brings with it new resolve to do better and be better than what we have been. Often times, those resolves fizzle as the year progresses. They fizzle, because we forget to cost in the value of self.
Those of us, that want to achieve a new balance in life by losing unwanted pounds, turn to diet and exercise sites, gyms, doctors etc. We sit down and figure out how much it will cost us to buy the products and services that will help us achieve our ultimate physique. We forget to cost in the spiritual, psychological and emotional toll that it will take to achieve that goal. We forget to cost in the value of self.
Achieving that which you set out to do can be taxing, grueling and disappointing. I have learned in my lifetime that your inner GPS will take you down roads that not even Alice, in her imaginary world, would travel. We go there, because we buy into the belief that there’s something wrong with us that needs to be fixed.
We look at magazines to see how our bodies should be shaped. We look at ads to see what clothes to wear, buy and how to look like we belong. We watch TV to see how to raise our children, prepare for an uncertain future and find out what to do, when to do and how to do it. We log on to the internet to date, communicate, network, blog and otherwise avoid doing that which we use to do face to face; that which allowed others to judge the true value of our character.
In the end we resolve to be that which God never intended for us to be. To my knowledge, and please feel free to fact check this, God has never made a mistake. He didn’t make one when he created you. He made you in his image and the image of God is glorious, beautiful and worthy enough to grace the cover of any magazine currently in print!
We are human, so it is human to want to be more. It is human to want more, but it is divinely humbling to step in front of the mirror and be proud of, and smile back at, the image you see reflected there. It has taken me the better part of my lifetime to realize that I am not a mistake. It has taken me, the whole of my 39-years, to realize that the greatest love is the love that God has for me.
This year, instead of trying to look like a supermodel why not resolve to try and look like you. Instead of looking to others for answers, resolve to trust yourself and your own decisions instead of thinking that everyone else is right and you are wrong. This year, when you sit down to make out your list of New Year’s resolutions, intentionally cost in your own value and self-worth before costing out the value of what you believe you will have to pay in order to get to the you that wasn’t created in God’s image.
My two cents, for what it’s worth.
Have a blessed, safe and YOU New Year!