Our worth and value may seem to be based on human accomplishment or status, but they actually have a much deeper foundation: our spiritual oneness with God. All God’s offspring are infinitely valued in God’s eyes, so we don’t have to “keep running to catch the bus,” so to speak.
The qualities God has equipped us with – such as compassion, intelligence, and liveliness – are what give us value. As we express them, others naturally recognize our value, and we do too. It is because God has created each of us to have a deep and abiding sense of worth that we possess it.
“Deity was satisfied with His work. How could He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self-containment and immortal wisdom?” penned the discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 519). It is because Deity is satisfied with how He created us that we are satisfied as well. We reflect God’s satisfaction.
Then where does a lack of feeling valued and worthy come from? It’s just a misunderstanding, not knowing that God’s goodness is expressed through His idea, man, including each of us. Misapprehending existence can promote an unsatisfied longing to gain and retain a sense of value. And this can lead to overzealous behavior like being a people pleaser, as I once found out.
Desiring approval and acceptance from others led me to take on projects and responsibilities I had no business being involved in. I wasted valuable time and energy while catering to the whims of others and neglecting my own opportunities and spiritual pursuits.
Then one day I read this: “Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Message to The Mother Church for 1902,” p. 17).
This taught me that there is a spiritual basis for feeling valued and worthy, and it is in God, divine Love. God pours forth the grace that makes us conscious of how deeply He loves and values us, and He shows us how to express His goodness.
While it is right and good to help others in their useful endeavors, if the motive is to receive praise and approval, then the effort isn’t God-directed and meaningful. This is what I learned, and it freed me from the clutches of seeking approval, and enabled me to be more obedient to how God is guiding me.
God loves each of us in the same way He loved Christ Jesus. After his baptism, Jesus rose out of the Jordan River and heard these words from heaven: “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). Jesus taught that we are each beloved of God.
Our heavenly Father is continuously bestowing His love on us and giving us a spiritual sense of how valued and cherished we are. Peter, a disciple of Jesus, must have come to this conclusion when he learned that all are equal in the eyes of God, and no man is unholy (see Acts 10:28). Our role is to possess this understanding and let our lives conform to it.
The Lord’s Prayer says, in part, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Mary Baker Eddy offers the spiritual interpretation of this line: “Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections” (Science and Health, p. 17). Every day the Father gives us a conscious sense of our priceless worth. All we have to do is accept it.
