What's in the Box
Years ago shortly after we moved, Joel and I were sitting in our living room sorting through boxes and found one from my mother filled with childhood memorabilia. She had meticulously collected and organized items over the years—old photos, my drawings, clips of my hair, and other mementos. We were just laughing at a photo of me sitting at my mother's dressing table covered in her lipstick when I came across a card that I had given to my parents when I was about seven years old. I opened the faded, yellowed card which read, "I love you, Mom and Dad. You are the greatest parents in the world." Then in orange colored marker it said, "I feel like we are somebody important and I know that we are."
I sat there and stared at the phrase I had carefully printed so long ago and wondered why I would have written it. What made me think of that? How could I have possibly felt so important? How could I be so bold at such a young age to think that my family and I mattered so much? As I meditated on those words, God opened my mind to an insight that has forever affected my way of thinking. That is, God has placed great value, significance, and importance on the inside of every one of us. We all have an important role to play in this life. We matter, our actions matter, our thoughts matter, and our words matter!
At that moment, the note I had written as a child reminded me that I am important to God today, and because I am important to God, I am important to myself and to those around me.
What's in the memory box of your heart today? How do you see yourself? Do you know that you are important? Some days you may wake up and not feel important; in fact, some days you may feel just the opposite. We all have days when it seems as though life is trying to knock us down and get us off course, and we lose sight of the great treasure inside of us. But what matters most is not how we may feel or how we appear to others; what matters most is what we truly believe about own value and significance.
Remember, you are not here by accident; you are here on purpose, for a purpose. You are important. Your life is important. How you live is important, and it matters in eternity.
If you haven't thought about that lately, I encourage you to open the memory box of your heart. Take a look at things your heavenly Father has collected and preserved for you over the years of your life—value, significance, purpose, destiny. Let them be the foundation for the way you see yourself so you can have the confidence to be everything He's created you to be!
"For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." (Proverbs 23:7, NKJV)
I sat there and stared at the phrase I had carefully printed so long ago and wondered why I would have written it. What made me think of that? How could I have possibly felt so important? How could I be so bold at such a young age to think that my family and I mattered so much? As I meditated on those words, God opened my mind to an insight that has forever affected my way of thinking. That is, God has placed great value, significance, and importance on the inside of every one of us. We all have an important role to play in this life. We matter, our actions matter, our thoughts matter, and our words matter!
At that moment, the note I had written as a child reminded me that I am important to God today, and because I am important to God, I am important to myself and to those around me.
What's in the memory box of your heart today? How do you see yourself? Do you know that you are important? Some days you may wake up and not feel important; in fact, some days you may feel just the opposite. We all have days when it seems as though life is trying to knock us down and get us off course, and we lose sight of the great treasure inside of us. But what matters most is not how we may feel or how we appear to others; what matters most is what we truly believe about own value and significance.
Remember, you are not here by accident; you are here on purpose, for a purpose. You are important. Your life is important. How you live is important, and it matters in eternity.
If you haven't thought about that lately, I encourage you to open the memory box of your heart. Take a look at things your heavenly Father has collected and preserved for you over the years of your life—value, significance, purpose, destiny. Let them be the foundation for the way you see yourself so you can have the confidence to be everything He's created you to be!
"For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." (Proverbs 23:7, NKJV)