Where Does my Worth Come From?

Well.... I broke my perfect streak of writing once a week. Boooo. I had friends come visit me, and I got distracted. Hey, at least I'm honest, right?

Within the past week, I've had about 50 half-baked ideas in my head. So many good starts, but hardly any of them fully fleshed out, yet. BUT just before writing this, something came to me:

I have been on social media ENTIRELY too much the past two or three days, and in between my fits of stalking old friends and forgetting to write on people's walls for their birthday, I noticed a pattern. Story after story on my newsfeed involved people screaming out for acceptance, admiration, even love. Many (most, actually) of these instances came from girls, my age, not unlike myself. In fact, I would be straight-up lying if I said I don't periodically circle through this phase of wanting (fill in the blank/ anyone other than God's) acceptance. EVERYONE STRUGGLES WITH THIS. That is just the truth. I'm sorry.

One of the biggest and most frequent lies our society presents to us is that we need to work on ourselves in order to gain the acceptance of each other. Think about this, women: you get up, pick out your best outfit, put on some killer shoes, perfect your cat-eye eyeliner, double up on coats of mascara, and DEFINITELY cover up those nasty blemishes...for who? Not for God! Not even, really, for boys. (Newsflash: red lipstick actually kind of freaks them out, as it's not very natural-looking.) We fix up for each other! We want the acceptance and the positive attention of each other so, so much that we feel we need to be one step ahead of each other at all times. The need to be the best, the prettiest, the most popular, or the smartest stems from us investing our self-esteem in each other.

Which leads me to my next point:
I am...mmmm...just...really tired of hearing people rant on and on about how the beauty industry does nothing but give girls low self-esteem. Like anything else, that can be true to some extent, but PUH-LEASE, let's stop deflecting the heat off of ourselves! As women, we are each other's worst enemies when it comes to low self-esteem. Like men, we are geared toward competition, but unlike them, we don't go for the prize and then stop. Instead, we compete to stay on top, because we feel we need that security of being "the most" to feel worthy. Like I said before, I go through ups and downs - sometimes I can get really catty. When I look back at my worst moments, though, they are always at a time when I had low self-esteem - a time when I forgot where my true worth comes from.

The only One whose acceptance we need is The One, and guess what? We've already gotten it! Holla. He loves us, and I mean REALLY loves us. This is real. Think of all of the things you hold dearest in your life - family, friends, even your husband or future husband - now completely and quickly erase them from your mind for a moment. (Yes, EVEN your husband!) Why? Because even they cannot dictate your sense of self. God is the ONE THING that is eternal. He is the one thing that is purely good. He will not judge you. He will always love you. He created you from His very own image! That should make us immeasurably happy and confident.

Let me make another analogy: I used to (ahem....still do, sometimes...) judge myself very critically on (this is so embarrassing) the fact that I never had a boyfriend. (Wait, it gets even more embarrassing.) Even more so, I always felt I needed the token, most perfect, most popular boyfriend - nice, funny, great Christian, athletic- no pressure, right? In essence, I was finding my self worth in whether "the perfect guy" liked me or not. Now, game-changer: He does. He loves ME. The greatest not just man, but KING chose ME (and YOU) to love. To love completely. And eternally. THAT is where our self-esteem should come from. We no longer have anyone else to blame but ourselves when our self-esteem is low. We have no excuse. The King of Kings loves us, and He will never stop loving us. It doesn't matter if we are Valedictorian or dead last in our class, if we have a million adoring fans or one best friend, He will love us. He will NEVER forsake us.

Isn't that just the best feeling? Doesn't it kind of change everything? We are worthy and beautiful daughters of Him, and that should make us truly and eternally happy. :))



<3 data-blogger-escaped-br=""> becca