Finding Their Worth

As a parent, we do a lot of things to try to prepare our kids for the world they’re going to inherit.

We teach right and wrong. We ensure they get proper schooling. We teach the importance of hard work. We care for them, feed them, clothe them, and kiss their boo-boos.

We even have “the talk”.

But there are some things that kids have to learn on their own, no matter how hard you try to prepare them.

Today, I spent some time with two of my three kids, discussing things that were said to them (or about them) by their friends. They were upset. Hurtful words were said. I won’t go into detail, but suffice it to say that they were seeing the world for what it can be sometimes: a hard, cruel place, filled with people that often times will hurt them.

It’s a TOUGH lesson to watch them go through. We can try and try to prepare them for this kind of thing, but nothing hits home like experiencing it.

I guess once again I’m just struck by the need to emphasize OVER and OVER and OVER again about where we find our worth:

In God.

He conceived of us… planned our existence, knitting us together cell by cell, and breathing life into us.

He has gifted us with our appearance, our intellects, our passions, and our talents.

He has walked with us through every step of our life, shielding us from the things that we need to be shielded from, and allowing us to experience the things that he needs us to experience.

Quite simply, He’s everything to us, and our worth comes through Him.

NOT through the praise or criticism of others.

So tonight, as my kids drift off to sleep, I can’t help but hope and pray that this lesson has sunk in. God knows we’ve tried to preach it, teach it, and model it.

Father, let them BELIEVE it. Let them KNOW it. Let this IMPACT everything that they are, and everything that they WILL be.

Amen.

(Oh, and by the way Lord, help me too, and others in the same boat tonight. Because this isn’t just a struggle for kids.)