Each Monday morning, our Head of College, Paul Valese sends all students an email. This is what he sent this week.
“God doesn’t make junk.
So far, we have seen that God CREATED you and BREATHED life into you. This means you matter to Him – and therefore you matter to us.
We believe that God made you. God is perfect and won’t make junk. This means that whatever you think of yourself, or whatever others think of you – You are NOT junk.
This should make you feel pretty special.”
I couldn’t help agreeing wholeheartedly with him. If we all believed this about ourselves, I doubt that many people would need to come and see me. The sense of one’s own value or worth as a person is described as self-worth.
It’s tempting to compare ourselves with those around, but that’s not particularly helpful in developing our sense of self-worth. Young people are particularly prone to doing this. There’s always going to be someone (not one single individual) who does better, is more beautiful, is faster, stronger, richer, more capable or talented, comes from a more stable family, has more friends, gets more likes. etc…. None of these things determines our value or self-worth, but in fact, we actually determine it ourselves. One article I read stated, “If you believe you are worthy and valuable – you are. If you don’t believe you are worthy and valuable…you are worthy and valuable anyway.” For someone struggling with believing this, that saying could be a good one to set as a motivational lock screen reminder on devices.
Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll explore how we might best support our children in valuing themselves in healthy ways. In the meantime, remember that God doesn’t make junk!
Jenny Billingham
(If you have a topic that you’d like more information about and think might interest other parents, please don’t hesitate to email me with suggestions at j.billingham@mueller.qld.edu.au Thanks.)
