Significant, Accepted, Loved

{A guest post by Eowyn of inklings press}

In our world today, now more than ever before, we're constantly faced with advertisements, movies, songs, and books that all scream, “To be truly worth something – or to at least feel like you're worth something – you need to have a Significant Other. Otherwise, your life is worthless.”

 It doesn't help that, the older we get, it feels like all of our friends are getting into relationships, getting married, and having kids. We whisper to the retreating toilet-papered and Coke-canned car, “What am I, chopped liver?!”

 On Valentine's Day last year – or, as I affectionately like to call it, Single Awareness Day (S.A.D.) – I was a mess. A few weeks before, my older sister had come up with the brilliant idea of having a Valentine's Day Banquet for the couples at our church. I was on The Board, “voluntold” to be Official Photographer and Official Person In Charge Of The Gluten-Free Menu Items. So for the weeks leading up to V-Day – and a few days afterward because the banquet wasn't 'til the Saturday after V-Day – I was knee-deep in preparations. I listened to hour upon weary hour of romantic music as I tried to pick out a few songs for the couples to dance to, racked my brain about the food I was supposed to make, and thought and practiced long and hard about what, as official photographer, I needed to accomplish.

By the time S.A.D. rolled around, I was through. DONE. Done with all of the romance and chocolate and flowers. Done with the thoughts of, “Well, this is all fine and well, but why do I keep feeling so sad?” On Valentine's Day, I holed myself up in my room, listening to the romantic music my sister and I had picked out as I did my schoolwork. I stared at the wall for a while, thinking about nothing and everything. I wrote a (pretty pathetic) letter to my future husband. I started reading When Dreams Come True again, trying to remind myself just why I didn't have a “man-friend” at the time. (That book, by the way, is reeeeeally good. Totally recommend it.) Then, at about nine o'clock that night, I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself. I needed to do something to get my mind off of how pathetic I was acting. I watched The Avengers. (The banquet was a roaring success, by the way. I just needed to stop thinking about myself and start thinking about how I could make Valentine's Day special for all of the couples at our church. I actually ended up enjoying it – a ton. Thanks for asking.)

Now that I'm older and *cough* hopefully *cough* more mature, I've been able to look back on that day and laugh. This year, Valentine's Day is going to be different in soooo many ways. No, I don't have a guy-friend and I'm not in a relationship. However, since then, I've understood just why I felt that way – why I was so depressed that night. I realized that, pretty much, my self-worth was so wrapped up in my non-existent status of being someone's “gf” that I wasn't content with where my self-worth was really supposed to be – in Jesus. I needed to have a serious talk with God that night... and I think I did.

 Let's take a look in the Bible and see what God says about us.

You are significant. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." 

You are accepted. Ephesians 1:4-6 says, "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves."

 You are loved. Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

You are wonderful. Psalm 139:13-14 says, "For You created my inmost being, You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

With this kind of love, why do we feel unloved and worthless? Think on these verses the next time you feel incomplete because you don't have a Significant Other.

How deep the Father's love for us, 

How vast beyond all measure 

That He should give His only Son 

To make a wretch His treasure.

About Eowyn:

Eowyn is a writer, reader, musician, photographer, tree-climber, and Leaguette. She speaks fluently in movie quotes and spends most of her time fangirling over her latest obsession. In her free time, she enjoys laughing with her friends, laughing with her five crazy siblings, and laughing over Christian indie films (but secretly loving them). She frequently posts her ramblings, pictures, and writing snippets at www.inklingspress.wordpress.com.