Be Love....Be Loved
What Does It Mean To Feel Treasured?
Something I’ve been thinking a lot these days as I go through some personal growth and watch the growth going on in society (or not)...
Is this idea of “being the right person.”
It’s easy to pick up a warped perception of who you, as a person, are “supposed to be.”
Whether it’s something your neighbor said or a widely held cultural belief, we’re all bombarded with these implicit standards of what’s acceptable and what’s not.
Maybe you can blend in, for the most part… but blending in means you aren’t seen.
Or maybe you don’t blend in at all, and standing out makes you “the other.” So you face a lifelong uphill battle full of constant rejection, silent or otherwise.
Either way, it’s easy to get wrapped up in pleasing other people… and our ability to do so, or not.
I do it, you’ve done it, we all do it. It’s a part of being human, this instinct to look to others for validation and acceptance…
And the instinct to feel “less than” or unworthy when you don’t match up to these expectations.
But here’s the problem with this whole entire thing: In doing so… in participating in this culture of conditional acceptance… we are attempting to make ourselves something, or someone, we’re not.
This is the greatest tragedy of all… because every one of us has gifts to offer the world. But by acting like someone we aren’t, we’re minimizing--or even flat-out rejecting--these gifts.
And we all suffer as a result.
If you can be convinced that you should be like “somebody else” or you’re wrong, you have fallen for the great lie that’s been perpetuated over and over and over again since the beginning of time.
We all have.
But it’s a lie. And this lie needs to be dismantled, actively and consistently, if we’re ever going to have hope.
Having been conditioned to seek the approval of something (or someone) external our entire lives, it can be difficult to see our own inherent worth.
But if the lie is that you need the approval of others… then the truth is that you are accepted exactly as you are.
If no one else’s opinion about your worth or value matters, then you have true freedom to be yourself.
I told the team the other day that we humans were made to be love. We were made to have love infuse every thought, every action every cell in our bodies. This is something I cling to, not only as guidance for how I conduct myself and my business… but how I perceive myself and the others around me.
In Proverbs, the ancient book of wisdom, there’s a chapter that’s written in the voice of Divine Wisdom. At the end of this chapter, Wisdom tells us that it delights in mankind.
That means you. Me. All of us.
The Greatest Good in the universe takes delight in us… not because of how well we perform or assimilate… but simply because we exist.
What makes you valuable, and worthy, and deserving of love and acceptance, is who you are.
Not how you act. Not how you look. Not what you can do.
Just… who you are.
That’s enough. YOU are enough, just as you are.
If you want to experience the richness that life has to offer, then extend that same understanding to every person around you. My greatest hope is that, in doing so, we will begin to dismantle all the pain and lies that are so deeply entrenched… in our minds and in our societies.
What makes you valuable has nothing to do with what you do. What makes you valuable is who you are.
This is how you find yourself. This is how you find your people. And this is how you can be love in a world that so desperately needs it.
© Copyright. All rights reserved.