Becoming the U-niquely You

Often times, our self-worth is based on what other people tell us about ourselves.

We allow other people to dictate who we are. We allow others to tell us who we are. And often times, people around us fail us - even those we love, those we trust, those closest to us.

The one, true authority on our self-worth is Jesus Christ, and since He gave His own life up for us by dying on a cross, that should tell us just how valuable we really are.

The Bible tells us that God gave us worth when He purchased us to be His own people (Ephesians 1: 14). Because of this, only He is worthy of honor and praise. When we have healthy self-esteem, we will value ourselves enough not to become involved in enslaving sin. Instead, we should conduct ourselves with humility, thinking of others as better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). Romans 12:3 warns, “Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.”


As Henri Nouwen once said: "Often we want to be somewhere other than where we are, or even to be someone other than who we are. We tend to compare ourselves constantly with others and wonder why we are not as rich, as intelligent, as simple, as generous, or as saintly as they are. Such comparisons make us feel guilty, ashamed, or jealous. It is very important to realize that our vocation is hidden in where we are and who we are. We are unique human beings, each with a call to realize in life what nobody else can, and to realize it in the concrete context of the here and now.

We will never find our vocations by trying to figure out whether we are better or worse than others. We are good enough to do what we are called to do. Be yourself!"