I believe that for a lot of years I have lived by a false belief. I have lived believing that part of my value is directly connected to what I accomplish. When I would do something great, I would feel good about myself and receive praise from others. These good feelings and praise fueled my desire to keep doing good. Doing good things is good. But believing that doing those good things is what makes you of worth, can be destructive.
I don't think I realized how destructive those false beliefs were until I suddenly found myself being able to accomplish very little. When I could no longer do things for my family, friends, neighbors or church community, it left me feeling that I had little worth. The false truth of: "The more good I do, the more more value I have" turned into: "I have less worth, because I can accomplish less." I struggled with feelings of being a burden to my family. I worried that friends would not find value in me because of my diminished capacity. These feelings led to discouragement and a false belief in my worth.
The truth is that our worth has nothing to do with our accomplishments. We cannot increase or decrease our value with the amount of good works that we perform.
We have intrinsic value as a child of God.
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Romans 8:16-18
This is one of my favorite scriptures! I love that reminder that we are truly children of God. I love the hope that not only do we have great worth, but we will one day see our true glory revealed in ourselves.
I believe that God already sees this glorified potential in each of us. He sees us for who and what we truly are. The challenge that we face in mortality is to learn to see our true worth and live accordingly.
We are children of God and our actions do not change that great truth. A hundred dollar bill still has the same worth whether it is old and crumpled or crisp and new. And no matter how old and crumpled we feel, we will one day be made crisp and new through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
