4:8 Principle -- Your self-worth

Your self-worth demonstrates how spiritually fit and ready to do God's work you really are. It also reveals how receptive you are to God's blessings and favor. Self-worth is authentic self-esteem rooted in your uniqueness as a child of God.

You accept that God has great plans for your life. You trust God's word more than the words of other to appraise your value as a person. Self-worth is not based on achievements, but on the significance you place on your life outside of your performance - on your identity as one created and loved by God.

When I was growing up, my dad tried to instill this truth in me. He wanted me to know that God's opinion of me was the only opinion that mattered. What an important truth! When I would get worked up about others and their acceptance of who I am or what I was doing, my dad would tell me to pull out my list and check it.
He would mimic pulling out a list from his back pocket. Checking it over, he would say, "Nope. They aren't on it," and tuck the imaginary list back in his pocket. Although I still struggle with the need for acceptance and gaining positive applause from those around me, I still remember that analogy and find myself reaching for my list.

Let me share with you this idea...
What you do has a great potential to rub off on your children, your spouse and others around you. Especially when it comes to your children, don't you want to exhibit a strong self-worth so they in turn have a strong self-worth?

Nothing will improve your child's performance like an injection of self-worth. Without the stress of posing and pretending, they have more fuel and focus for achieving the goals they find most worthwhile. The same is true for you. The most well-adjusted, mature individuals have a high sense of self-worth, which means they say yes only to things they feel terrific about. They make choices based on what is best for them... not just on what makes others happy.

Today's exercise:
Make a list of your 5 best achievements so far. Add this to the list of your 5 strengths or positive traits. Be sure to place this somewhere you can see it often -- preferable in the morning and before you go to be each night.