How much are you worth?
Before you respond what are your first thoughts — your salary, your stock portfolio, the car you drive, the type of clothes you wear, the neighborhood you live in? If those are the things you use to determine your worth, it may be time to recalculate.
Worth — the value equivalent to that of someone or something under consideration; the level at which someone or something deserves to be valued or rated.
We hear a lot about essential and nonessential workers and depending on which category you may have been placed in, perhaps you were forced to take an internal assessment of your actual worth. How do you see your value?
This reminds me of the following story that I recently read.
Before he died, a father said to his son, “Here is a watch that your grandfather gave me. It is almost 200 years old, but before I give it to you, I want you to go to the jewelry store downtown, tell them that I want to sell it, and see how much they offer you.”
The son went to the jewelry story, and immediately came back to his father, and said, “They offered me $15, because it’s so old.”
The father then said, “Then go to the pawn shop, and see what their offer is.”
The son went to the pawn shop, came back to his father, and said, “The pawn shop offered me $10, because it looks so worn.”
The father then asked his son to go back downtown, once more, to the museum and show them the watch.
He went to the museum, and eagerly returned, and said to his father, “The curator offered $500,000 for this very rare piece to be included in their precious antique collections.”
The father said, “I wanted to let you know that the right place values you in the right way. Don’t find yourself in the wrong place and get angry if you are not valued. Those who know your value are those who appreciate you. Don’t remain in a place where no one sees your value.”
Often we spend too much time and exert too much effort in places and with people where our value is not appreciated. Your value does not decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.
Jesus put it this way in Matthew 10:28-31:
“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
You won’t find your worth in another person. You’ll find your worth in yourself and who God says you are. God determined your worth long before anyone else had an opinion. He established your value at your birth, labeled you “essential,” and determined that the world needed what He had placed inside of you. Don’t let someone who doesn’t know your value tell you how much you’re worth.
When you finally understand your worth, you’ll stop giving people discounts.
To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.
And, yes, I’m . . .
Still Believing!
Such great nuggets of advice: “Don’t let someone who doesn’t know your value tell you how much you’re worth. When you finally understand your worth, you’ll stop giving people discounts.”
Thanks for this reminder!