The word worthiness stems from worthy which means important enough or deserving. When is the right time to start thinking about self-worthiness? Beyond home training, school is an important place for a child to further his or her "education" about how to feel good about him or herself. For elementary age children, being accepted by their peers is sometimes more important than getting good grades. By their teen years, many of them still feel the same way. Unfortunately, into adulthood, this trend continues and becomes very difficult to change. Below are a few behaviors that show signs of low self-worthiness:
- You need others' approval to feel good about yourself
- You are depressed and unhappy with yourself for no apparent reason.
- They don't feel you deserve respect?
- You can't accept criticism without feeling put down
- You are afraid to speak out against their friends
- You think that being like others is more important than being themselves
When you find yourself exhibiting one or more of these behaviors, then you probably don't feel you have enough self-worthiness. You feel that others are simply better than you. You need to know that you are important enough to deserve attention-from yourself and others around you!
Being Pro-Self
First, we must believe that the Almighty Creator put us here on earth on an even playing field; that each of us is an entity within ourselves. Everything we need to be Pro-self comes from within. When you look outside of yourself, then you tend to set your own standards of what's acceptable and what's unacceptable. With the onslaught of over zealous television commercials, materialistic movies, and the media at large, society has redefined who's important and what makes one a 'star.' When you compare yourself to these man-made stars, you will fall way short in some way-either you're not rich enough, not beautiful enough, not talented enough, etc., which results in a shallow worthiness.
Being Pro-self means that you are happy with yourself and feel that you deserve to be loved and respected; you feel valued and needed, and you don't need others to tell you if you've done a good job. Being Pro-self means that you feel important enough to accept criticism without feeling put down. You admit your mistakes openly, you accept the fact that you are not perfect, and you always speak up for yourself.
Self-Confidence
Confidence is a mental process that arises from considering if a person is capable of something. Self-confidence is having confidence in oneself when considering a capability; and having faith in one's own ability. (Wikipedia). People with high self-confidence typically have little fear of the unknown, are able to stand up for what they believe in, and have the courage to risk embarrassment (i.e. going before a large group to speak out about what you believe). By developing confidence in your abilities and capacities brings on self-empowerment. This does not mean you have to be loud, brassy, or reckless. Self-confidence exudes humility and mild-manners.
Information is Power
Find out how you can begin learning about yourself from the inside out! Read some good self-help books. More importantly, get a Bible concordance to find passages on what the Creator has to say about your self-worthiness. Learn about the power that has been imbued within each and every one of us. Learn how to tap into it. This power will show you that life does not have to be a burden; instead it contains a wealth of opportunities for each of us to do well and feel good about ourselves each passing day.
