Self-worth or God-worth

self-worth – [self–wurth]

–noun

the sense of one’s own value or worth as a person; self-esteem; self-respect.

 

 

Self-worth is a valuable asset; we all need to feel a sense of value in our selves. We all need to know that we add value to this world, to our community and our families.

 

We gain self-worth by believing in and loving ourselves, but the question is, how? How do we do this, how do we love ourselves, how do we gain self-worth in a world that teaches a culture of death, teaches individuals over all others?

 

We can not value self; we can not live a productive life, with any meaning, if we do not value other. Self-worth is a sense of ones own worth, removing from the equation the value or worth of others. It is a value system setup to remove community from our individual life.

 

We do not, and can not live a life in the void; we are a creation of community. We are not created to live outside of others, but rather, we are created to live in community.

 

As Catholics, as Christians we understand community, we live in communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We pray in the community of our churches, we reach out to the community at large through community-service project and we pray for the community at large.

 

The Church, as the body of Christ, has created a self-worth not by internal means, but rather we have gained self-worth as the body of Christ, through external works.

 

The Catholic Church must look out in to the community to define herself with in the community, and we as Catholics must also do the same, we too must look outside into the community to help define ourselves.

 

But this to must be done with caution; the same traps exist when we look externally to help define self. We need to look to the value system of the community we are serving; we need to evaluate the purpose of the outreach.

 

 Self-worth has no worth with out God-worth.

 

*God-worth – [God–wurth]

–noun

the sense of God’s value or worth of you as a person; God-esteem; God-respect.

 

Our worth is not based on our own valuing of self, but rather it is based on the value God has placed in us.

 

The Catholic Church’s value is not because she is in the community, but rather the Catholic Church is in the community because of her God-worth. She understands that her value to the community is precisely because God values her.

 

The same can and should be said for ourselves, our self-worth is not because we see ourselves as valuable, not because we are active in our community, but rather, our self-worth is because God values us, we should be in the community because God has loved us, and he calls us to share the light of God with others.

 

God-worth is the power behind self-worth; self-worth has no meaning with out God-worth. One can not value self above others; one can not serve self only and expect to feel more value in self.

 

We are a people of community, but more importantly we are a people of God. We are told to rely on God, not on earthly goods, we are told that it is in God we find happiness, if we, as Catholics, believe this, then why do we find it hard to believe or to understand, that it is only God that we need to please, and by doing so, we will value self. God has promised us all that we need (not want, but need) if we place our trust in Him.

 

Self-worth is a subset of God-worth; self-worth has no value outside of God-worth. We, has a community, we as Church and we as self must do all for the body of Christ, we must gain our value from the body Christ, we are all one body, we are children of God. We are all created in the image of God, the image of perfection. We are all created from love, we are all created with innate value, yet we fail to see it, we fail to feel it because we place too much value in ourselves, outside of our value in God. We look too much to the outside to define self rather then to the heavens to define self.

 

God has created you from pure love, your value is innate, and it is overflowing with graces from God. Look to Him to fill your soul with value and worth, look to Christ to learn how to live a live of God-worth. Look to yourself to see God in all you are and all you do.

 

Paul

 

*God-worth is not a word in the dictionary, I have created this definition for the purpose of this blog.