Recently I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, and I’m not just saying she’s beautiful because she is my daughter. Most strangers cannot walk past her without stopping to admire her beauty. She’s a baby that you can just fall in love with just by looking at her precious face. After realizing how beautiful and perfect she was I decided that she needed to be the next “Gerber Baby”. I started sending her pictures out to different modeling agencies. After getting a response back from a modeling agency that was interested in her, my husband finally decided to tell me that he doesn’t want her to be a model. Fine time to tell me this, after she had already been accepted and I’d gotten my hopes up. I was crushed. Didn’t he see that God had given us such a beautiful, perfect baby and I wanted to share her beauty with the world? I was complaining about this disagreement with a friend of mine and she suggested that I read a book by Dr. James Dobson titled, Hide or Seek. After reading only the first chapter I felt so convicted about putting such a high value on my daughter’s physical appearance. I knew my husband was right about the modeling issue.
In the book, Hide or Seek, Dr. Dobson talks about how society can mold our self-esteem by placing such an emphasis on physical beauty. “By glorifying idealized models, to which few can conform, we have created a vast army of “have nots” – born losers who are discouraged with life before it really begins” (pg. 23). “[In our society] not everyone is deemed worthy, not everyone is accepted. Instead, we reserve our praise and admiration for a select few who have been blessed from birth with the characteristics we value most highly” (pg. 23). “Without question, the most highly valued personal attribute in many cultures is physical attractiveness. Accordingly, the personal worth of a newborn infant is anxiously evaluated by parents as they examine the little body and its accessories” (pg. 27). Research studies found that, “When shown a set of children’s pictures and asked to identify the one who probably misbehaved, adults most often choose the least attractive child” (pg. 38). “Most children are able to determine the relative worth of their physical arrangement by the time they enter kindergarten” (pg. 33). Dr. Dobson spoke with a thirty-six year old man who told him that he was five years old when he realized he was ugly, and was never the same since then. This man’s entire personality had been shaped (distorted) by that awful realization (pg. 33). The media tells us that, “If you’re not beautiful, you don’t matter” (pg. 41). Dobson tells a story of a farmer who found an eagle that had one of its legs caught in a steel trap. Despite the weight of the trap and the pain, the bird had flown many miles until it was too exhausted to fly any further. “Low self-esteem is like that. You can fly with it for a while, but it weighs you down. And unless you, or someone else, can find a way to deal with it-to remove that trap-it will ground you and possibly lead to your destruction” (pg. 21).
Luckily there is hope and value for all us ordinary, average looking people. We are worth everything to God regardless of our physical appearance, our intellect, or our social status. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16. There is no prerequisite we need to fulfill or criteria we need to meet in order for this verse to be true for us. The Bible says God so loved “the world”. That means each and every one of us. If you’re struggling with low self-esteem or want to learn how you can help build your children’s self-esteem I strongly suggest reading Dr. Dobson’s book Hide or Seek.
Hmm… have to ponder that one for awhile…not sure I agree with that 🙂 but let me think it over a little before I get back with you. (thinking along the idea of actually thinking that I am "worth something" to God…always thought that I was worth nothing, and that God loved me for no other reason than that he loved me…not that he saw anything in me that was "worthy") More thoughts coming at a later date.
We aren't worthy enough for God's love, but he loves us anyway. I agree with JeepMan, even though he's still thinking on it. However, because we aren't worthy of God's love doesn't make us completely worthless, we have a duty to do for Christ and we are not to measure how much we are worth by the World's standards. So I partly agree/disagree with this article.
I think you two might be confusing worth with "what we deserve". Just because we do not deserve anything (because we are sinners in our nature) does not mean that we are not worth anything. If God didn't give us worth, he wouldn't have bothered sending Jesus to save our souls. If we didn't have worth, he would have given dominion to the earthworm, not to man. Just the fact that we are made in his image shows that he places worth in us. He calls us his children. He doesn't do that to any other species on the planet. All this is because he loves us and thinks very much of us. We may not be worthy in the sense of "deserving of praise" but we are worthy in the fact that HE has placed value in us.
What a powerful thought! It forces us to change the way that we think about others b/c it is so easy for us to judge people based on what see instead of looking at their heart and thinking about what God values!
In response to previous comments – Why would God desire praise from us if He didn't value us? The article is making the point that people shouldn't be valued based on what we see physically, but b/c we are God's creation. God does everything for a purpose and He wouldn't have created us if there wasn't a purpose. That alone gives us value / worth.
I think the bottom line is how we treat others. That's the point of the article, regardless of whether we feel we have worth or not.
🙂 ok, after many long nights pondering this subject… Just kidding 🙂 though I have thought about it a good deal, just not enough to keep me awake at night (not much that can do that)
Now, after all the thinking I've tried to do, I've come to believe that we are worth something…but only because God set his love upon us from the beginning of time. This is where I may differ with some people theologically, but I believe that my salvation was ordained by God before time even began (Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." and Matthew 25:34 "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:" ) And thus, because of the righteousness of Christ, and nothing else, I am actually worth something. I'm still pondering this, and take it for what you will, but in contrast, those whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, (Revelation 17:8) I would submit are worth nothing, as they have nothing but their own filthy rags of "righteousness" covering them, yea even the stench of sin, and nothing else.
The whole point that I'm trying to make is that we are not worth something to God because of something we did. God is not bettered by taking us unto himself, unless it would be to give himself more glory. God is wholly self sufficient, without a want that we could fulfill in any way (Psalm 50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. ).
Please excuse any errors I may have made in all that 🙂 I'm young, dumb, and just trying to serve the Lord and glorify him the best that I can…let the constructive critism abound!
You may be young but in God eyes your the most wonderful person out here.