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I know of only one Being greater than mankind.

''MARVEL! you are not your work, you matter and are so valuable, I also want to say that the recent spoken word you put up was amazing.'' read the text Alyssa sent me soon after a post I put on instagram. I was overly excited by her feedback (compliment) as I usually am because like most creatives I think, the comments are definitely not taken for granted. Ever.  Anyway, when I first saw her text I thought, '' Well that's random. Why is she starting her sentence like that?'' ''Why is she calling me valuable? Does she think I don't know that already, maybe?''
And so being myself, I asked  her. Being gracious, she explained.

I am going to talk about myself as briefly as possible and say being a creative,  people will talk about your talent. People will cling onto what you can do, and maybe even possibly, for how it could help them later. And it's great, until it isn't. But it would take a whole lot to get to the isn't. You know, like, losing your voice permanently or losing both arms or damaging your brain forever, things like that.

So, the unexpected turn of this post, or maybe you saw it coming, is this cheesy topic that's not so cheesy; worth.

So being someone that has often attached my value to my ability: understanding and believing that I am of value even apart from that is a distant concept. Besides, I never have to wrestle with self worth because I never find reason to. Is this all about me stroking my ego? No. This is me emphasizing that daily I need the reminder; that I am not my work, even though it plays a big role into part of my being and existence. 

We all need reminders that we are not the things we can do or can't do. Or how we look or don't look.

So. Again, what am I saying? 
Not that you are one in a billion. Not that your finger print is unique to just you, though you should definitely hold on to that too.

But you really can't find worth outside simply believing that God thinks you were worth it. That He thinks you ARE worth it. If you do, it'll wear off and out.

I was having a conversation with my friend off of a tweet she found. (I think she finds it strenuous to have certain conversations with me because of my very Christian fixed and oriented views) but the tweet was about men and how hard it is for them because society has made it clear that apart from their achievement they are nothing. How women protect their value while men have to gain it. Things like that. I emphasized how it's one hundred percent the ripple effect of the fall, she said,'' okay but how do we change that.'' I said, ''apart from finding ultimate value in God, there's no hope.''


Now, do not misunderstand me. Work hard. Be all that you can be. And be it well and faithfully. But when you begin to think you are something only because of that then take the pause. "Value was never meant to be linked to position or possibility," to roughly quote Kathleen Nielson from her book Women and God.

J.D.Walt another writer said, ''You can't find the meaning of life by looking at life itself but looking beyond it.'' Now that would be a whole other blog post which quite frankly I wouldn't be too excited to get into because talking about life always wears me out because, what do I know? 
But I'll conclude with this, you can't find your value by looking at yourself. You've got to be looking at something greater and I know of only one Being greater than mankind. 

You know yourself best by knowing God.

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