You don't make me. God does.

I was having a lovely chat with my friend Pie the other day, talking about our value as humans, and she formulated her words in a way that was so illuminating that I thought I'd mention it here.

Pie noted how we sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that our value is directly linked to what people think of us, i.e. we are only cool, nice, lovely, wonderful, awesome if people say we are. Sure. We all think like this at one stage or another. That's why we so desperately want to conform and want to be accepted and liked by people.

But do you see the problem with this? Yeah.. 'Cause people aren't always the best judges of things. I mean, how many people listen to sokkie music and think it's awesome? I know I do, and I get ribbed about it the whole time [Some people have no taste. *sniff*]. Also, people are fickle and what's cool one moment, isn't the next. Case in point: the high-waisted jeans that were sooooooooooooo last year are in fact turning out to be so next year. [Go figure.] Additionally, just because people might think you're awesome, doesn't mean that they're going to tell you this. So you might drift through life never realizing your worth. Etcetc. Either way, I hope it's clear that if we really think about it, our practice of placing our sense of value on the opinions of people is kinda silly.

Instead, Pie said that we should see people's opinions of us as affirming or recognising our value, as opposed to giving us value. In other words: our value as human beings does not hinge on human opinion. Human opinion merely recognizes or affirms our value (or, if people are unkind, they fail to recognize or affirm as value). As people loved by a Heavenly Father who sent His only Son to die for those created in His image, we have intrinsic value independent of what people think of us. Rather, our value is dependent on what God has created and done.

Isn't that a relief. Now we can carry on listening to our sokkie music  :).