For years John and I repeated the same patterns. He would do something or not do something, I would feel like he didn’t love me and become angry. No matter how many times he told me that he loved me, I never believed him. I thought that he was just being a good person and loving me out of duty. The most consistent fight was over his being late for dinner. I felt that it was proof that he did not love me. We tried to work it out on our own but we couldn’t, so we started meeting with another pastor couple. They listened and encouraged us. The wife recognized that I had low self-esteem and gave me some verses to memorize about God’s love. It was while I was thinking about God’s love that I realized that I was not believing that I was worthy of love because I had never been loved. It didn’t matter how much John actually loved me, I would have never believed him, because the problem was inside of me. I had always thought that I believed that God loved me, but it didn’t make a difference in my life because I didn’t realize that love made me valuable. So I didn’t really like myself and I was convinced I wasn’t worth loving by anyone else. As a child I felt that my parents never told me they loved me, never spent time with me, never came to any of my cross country meets or any other important events in my life. I used to beg my dad to teach me to golf or how to fish because he had taught my brother, but he always refused. My parents hardly ever even talked to me. When we needed medical attention my parents never seemed to notice. We would just suffer with disease until our school called home. They didn’t protect us from people who they should have protected us from. I was so angry because of the pain of not being loved by anyone. So I believed that all of John’s actions of love were only out of duty because he could not possibly truly love me, because deep down I believed I was not valuable enough to love. When I realized this false belief, I began to accept John’s love as genuine. I realized that I was deeply hurt, but the hurt wasn’t caused by John. I had been angry at the wrong person. I was punishing him for my own insecurity. I needed to resolve the hurt so that I didn’t have to live an angry life any more.
I started really working on the question of where our value comes from and realized I had been trying to get my sense of value from the opinions of the people around me. I have finally come to terms with the fact that people don’t get to tell me my value, I am simply valuable because God created all human beings with value. It can’t be taken away by anyone but it also can’t be earned. My value is a gift from God and I am completely dependent on Him for it. I have become very realistic about my weaknesses and inability to be “good” and yet I still believe I am immensely valuable and worthy of love. My dad doesn’t get to tell me by his treatment of me that I am not worth anything. The belief that he could, is a lie. God is the only one who gets to assign my worth. Worth also does not come through our own accomplishments such as physical appearance, popularity, intelligence, wealth, competence, ability, talents, grades or success. It feels like it does, but it doesn’t. I am only valuable because of God’s love and I am completely valuable because of God’s love. There is no one who is more valuable or less valuable than anyone else, all people are valuable simply because they are made in the image of God and are deeply loved by Him. Brad Pitt is equal in value to Nick Vujicic (a paraplegic); the homeless or disabled person is equal to the president of the United States; there is no room for comparison. We can never be more or less valuable than anyone else.
God has become the loving father that I never had. I have reclaimed the true meaning of father. I choose not to allow my dad to define ”father” for me anymore. I am choosing now to allow The Father’s love to transform me in a way I never did before. I have become completely dependent on His view of me. I have a set of verses that I read every day to remind me. When I don’t go to God for the truth, I slip back into believing I have to earn love, or rely on people propping up my insecurity, or be good at something to be worth anything. God reminds me that love is unconditional, and love gives me value that cannot be taken.
I have agreed with God that a father should love his girls well and that my father is guilty of not doing that. Yet I have also accepted that I am equally deserving of judgment, God is the only rightful judge, and I have received the free gift of forgiveness. So I really can’t withhold forgiveness from anyone else without becoming ungrateful and callous to the forgiveness I have received.
Another thing I learned through counseling was that blaming my parents for the way I turned out was keeping me from growing. Although it is true that their neglect did result in my lack of social skills, a low view of myself, and mistrust of people’s motives towards me, I had to take responsibility for learning how to grow in those areas. These shortcomings were not my fault as a child but as an adult they are my responsibility to take ownership of and do the hard work of changing my thinking, my behavior, and become an emotionally, relationally, and spiritually healthy person. When I was holding my parents responsible I could just dislike myself and feel sorry for myself, but when I took ownership of my own brokenness, it opened my eyes to my part in perpetuating these things in my life. I realized that I could change myself and I didn’t have to be a slave to their mistakes. Whether they apologized or not, or changed or not or even acknowledged it or not, I am choosing to not allow them to have so much power over my life.
I am learning to own my part in my poor self- image, angry behavior, bitter attitude, pride, etc. It’s no longer my parent’s issue, its mine. I am responsible for who I am and how I behave. I need to be secure enough in myself to be able to allow others to be who they are, warts and all, and not let it affect how I feel about myself. When I am secure in myself I don’t have to require that people around me build me up, think well of me, or like me, etc. If their differences upset me, there is something wrong inside of me rather than them. Security in God means that nothing and no one can shake my belief that I am “OK”, I am loved, and I am worth something. Taking responsibility for my own behavior does not mean that other people aren’t responsible for their behavior, it just means they are responsible to God rather than to me. I can’t control others anyway so it is best to give up trying. It is amazing how much love I have to give others when I am completely secure in myself because of God, and I can love them even though they don’t think or act the way I think they should.
