I am a housewife. I cook and clean washing dishes, taking care of kids and finding the dust bunnies in the corner of the room that no one else notices. I change the sheets and fluff the pillows that everyone in my house lays on. No one appreciates the fact that they are line dried smelling of the best fabric softener that my hard earned money can buy. No one seems to realize that without my constant working and motion little would get done, few would be fed and countless other things would be completely non-existent. Doing so much for so little recognition would make it easy for me to feel that somehow I don’t matter, that my worth to this world is hardly useful beyond the confines of my own home. If I died tomorrow, the world as a whole would not change. I could sit for hours commiserating about my own self worth, feeling as though I have nothing to offer and that I am a slave the labors of life. Boring, routine and yes…unimportant!
The good news is that I have a choice. Just like all of us do! You have a choice to understand your self worth at all costs and to feel good about the everything that make us unique and makes us who we are. There is an old expression that says no one can make you feel any way without your approval! This is perhaps the most altruistic expression that describes the individual power of each person. To understand your self worth you must first realize that it is not measured by anything external. It doesn’t matter how much money you make or how you look. It doesn’t matter what kind of car you drive or how successful your kids or family are. Self worth is not about anything other than the inner you that you know. Self worth is about realizing all at once that who you are and what you are is a divine creature of substance that gives something extra special to this world every breathing moment of their life.
I am not a religious person per se. I believe wholly in God and am filled with gratitude for life that I am unable to express through words. I pray daily, nightly and every moment in between. I ask for understanding and peace, love and happiness and all the things that God is to me. I am humbled to stand with two feet planted on an Earth that is so much bigger than any one of us; yet beholds all the treasures that are needed to sustain each of us. Like thread, I am part of a massive quilt of man kind that would not be the same without me. I understand that my self worth transcends modern methods of reasoning and that feeling bad about what I do for a living or what I earn only negates and probably irritates a God that has obviously given each of us so much!
To understand your self worth you must be able to see past the obvious. It is equally important to see past the exterior character that each and every person creates in this world as a way of hiding. When we see in others things we can respect, love and admire – we are mirroring things in ourselves that we feel the same about. Similarly as we found things that are met with disdain in others, we are simply reflecting on those things about ourselves where we have not yet begun to understand our self worth. All of us are creatures who can change at will. We are not butterflies that have to wait and live in cocoons before we can unfold and bloom. With each morning, we can understand our own self worth and make it a day to remember. Everything that we need is provided to be happy- always! It is just left up to our choice.
Many people that I know spend hours in a daze of putting themselves down. They feel bad because they are over weight or because they don’t have enough money. They live in a world that somehow perpetuates them to feel badly. Secretly I think they like it there. By always focusing on this negative side to life they are ensuring that they never understand their own self worth and the superb impact that each of them can have. It enables them to remain unmotivated. It is as if they are victims of their own life and mind. Being fat, poor, ugly, and lazy or any negative quality does not mean that a life is not worth something. First we must be able to feel gratitude for what we are equipped with, realize the importance of our every breath and decide each day that we are worthy of this day of life.
Along the road of life lots of people try to inadvertently change our self worth. Sometimes a stranger, teacher, parent, friends or relatives word can sit harshly on our shoulders forever leaving us with a scar of damage to our self worth. The older we get the more important it is to understand your self worth and realize that no one can take it away from you without your permission. As we seek to understand just how much we have to offer in life by way of our presence we can begin to thoroughly understand our self worth.
For me, sometimes it is irritating that no understands or appreciates all that I do. I have learned in life though that often the thankless and silent tasks we do are done in order to make ourselves feel complete. To understand your self worth takes much time and patience and is the most important task we have to become the kind of person that we can admire. The journey is as individual as the hair on each of our heads and as important as anything in life we strive to accomplish!
