What’s your worth?

One day a young lady woke up and she knew something was different. She got out of her bed the same way, made her breakfast the same way and got ready for her day the same way. Something still felt off. When she stepped outside to walk to school that’s when she first noticed the difference. Though the sun was shining it never let it’s rays fall on her. All the people and places around her were surrounded in the sun’s rays but she could never seem to get warmed by them. It was like she was walking with a cloud or a shadow above her. When she got to school she thought for sure the lights inside the building would shine on her like everyone else, but sadly even inside there was a dimness around her that only she could see and feel. She tried to ignore what was happening. She tried to go about her day as if she were the same as everyone else, but eventually the dimness started to get to her. She started feel anxious and fearful that maybe something wasn’t right. She didn’t know what to do and she hoped that the next day would be normal again. Sadly though, the next day and the day after that were the same, she seem to just stay in this world of grey, as if she didn’t deserve the brightness of the light.

After the third day of this she got on her knees and prayed. She knew she should have done this sooner but she was so worried about what was wrong that she forgot to ask the one person who could tell her. Her prayer wasn’t a special eye opening prayer but a simple one in which she asked that her heart and ears be open to hear what she needed to hear. While reading a book before bed she remembered something. A day before she was put into the dimness she had shown her friends and family a painting she had done that she was proud of but she had never been too sure of her skill. Those who saw it praised her and told her how wonderful it was. If someone were to ask any one of them they would say that they were not surprised at the talent the girl had. Even with the praise and the encouragement to keep doing more paintings the girl still didn’t believe in herself. She just thought they were being nice. She didn’t know her worth. She wondered if this memory was there to help her understand the predicament she was in.

The next she talked to her mom, she told her what was going on and that she didn’t know what to do. The girl really wanted to be back in the rays of the sun, she wanted to be back in the same light as everyone else. She even told her mom about the day she showed everyone her painting. As she finished talking she noticed that her mom had this simple smile on her face. She invited her daughter to sit with her on the porch. As gently as she could the girl’s mom hugged her and said with love “my child, you don’t know your worth, and that is why you are not shining as bright as you could” It wasn’t that the sun’s rays were not shining on the girl, or that the lights in the building at her school were more dim when she walked through them. The girl did not know her worth and so she started to see the world around her as more bright because to her everyone else had more to offer. Once she started to believe in herself, once she started to understand and see what others saw in her, once she understood the love that God had for her and the talent He gave her, the dimness would start to fade away. She would start to see herself as brightly as what she saw in her environment.

We so easily become this girl. A new person gets hired on at our job to learn to do the job we are doing, our light gets dim. A lie is told about us, our light grows dim. Someone does something better than us, our light grows dim. We mess up, we fail at something, we fall, all these things will cause our light to grow dim. When this happens the world around us seems to be brighter and we just can’t seem to understand why we can’t get into that light. We are our own barriers. When we know our worth, when we know that God loves us and wants our lives be filled with joy, we have strength. We can go through hard times and failures and still shine just as bright as those around us if not brighter. We are all unique, just as we should be. How boring this world would be if we were all the same. When we shine bright because we are confident in who and whose we are we can share our brightness with people around us. It really doesn’t matter if we are an adult or a child, there are times when our shine isn’t as shiny. It’s in these moments we need to seek God and see if we fell into the trap again of not accepting our worth. The world is a beautiful place filled with sparkling, shining people accepting who they are and helping others to find their sparkle too. Do you shine brightly, or do you walk around in a world that needs more light? Until next time:

…and today is the day, stand out, stand up, stand your ground. Be the “who” that you are and be proud, and when you feel that you can’t make a sound, right there is the time when you’re supposed to get loud. Wake up, get up and do something.

Excerpt from a song on the radio