Shirley Lamontagne, Director of Administration
Is having a positive self-worth important to God? We are told in Genesis that each and every one of us is made in God’s image. What this verse says to me is that God wants nothing more than for all of us to love ourselves based on the fact that we are one of God’s creations and therefore we have value. By loving ourselves we create a positive self-worth that allows us to fulfill God’s greatest commandant as stated in the book of Matthew and that is to love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.
That scripture says it all—before we can love God and our neighbor as we are called we must first love and value ourselves. Loving ourselves can be a difficult process as we are often distracted by things in life that diminish our self-worth over time. For example, worrying about things out of our control distracts us from the place of honor that God has created for us. God tells us in 1 Peter 5:7 that we should give all our worries to the Divine for the Divine cares about what happens to us.
God wants us to lift up our worries and shed the anxiety associated with things out of our control. We are not given self-worth by what others may think of us but by how God sees us. We are not given value by how someone may treat us; instead, our value is inherent from God. I have had my own personal struggles with worry, and all I ever got in return were feelings of guilt, anger, and fear. However, since reconnecting with the Sacred over the past several years at our church, I have internalized new ways to measure my self-worth and that’s through the safety of God’s grace and love.
Individual self-worth is the cornerstone that mobilizes us as a community. As a church our positive self-worth is illustrated through the blessings that we are receiving both inside and outside of our church. Last week Pastor Wes in his bulletin article highlighted all the wonderful things happening with our church. He discussed things like the increase in our weekly attendance for worship services, new membership growth, and our new website. All these blessings are possible because of our sacred relationship with God.
God tells us that as humans we are all crowned with glory and honor. We are a priceless treasure in God’s eyes and that’s what we should be focusing on—not what someone else thinks of us, but what God thinks of us! We are all worthy because we are all forgiven and fully restored in God’s eyes. This is my prayer for all of us as we seek out our self-worth given to us through the special relationship that we share with our Creator.
