You are so loved

A couple weeks ago, I was having a really rough day. Crying, I walked over to Lillie Tate and Ann's room so I wasn't alone. While consoling me, Ann pulled out "The Blue Book" which is a devotional book by Jim Branch. She read me a passage from it and it stuck with me ever since, so much so that the next day I ordered the book. Read this passage, and replace Jim's name with yours and let Jesus speak to you....

"Jim, my son, you are my Beloved. I know how much insecurity and doubt fills your heart and it makes me so sad. It hurts me deeply to see you doubting your value,your worth, and your calling. I know how much you compare yourself with others, and how much (in your mind anyway) you come up woefully short in the comparison. I long for you to know your own beauty, value, and worth. You have something to offer that no one else in all creation has ever had, or ever will have. You are a wonderfully unique expression of my love, care, and creativity, and it gives me such joy to see you be who I made you to be and give what I gave you to give. You are incomparable; beyond compare. You are of infinite worth. Come to me and allow me to celebrate over you daily. Allow me to convince you that you are worthy of being celebrated. And allow me to remind you that I celebrate you every minute of every day. You are mine!!! And I love you!!!" -Being with Jesus by Jim Branch

As Ann read this to me, I began to cry even more. Not from sadness but because how comforting this was to me. Jesus knows how insecure and doubtful of yourself you are. It is so easy to compare yourself with others, mostly with social media today. You aren't skinny enough, you don't have enough friends, you aren't going to some extravagant place for spring break, you don't have the latest bag, the list goes on and on. Sometimes you don't feel like you are good enough compared to these people and that you need to improve yourself to be more like them. But you know what? God says you ARE enough. You were created in his image, not with the purpose of aiming to create the image of someone else. He created you to be unique. We often look for love and affirmation in the wrong places; a boy, the people around us, the internet, and sometimes we don't receive the love that we (or God) thinks we deserve. What really stinks is that the love from these people will come and go. They can make us feel like we are worthless and not worth loving. But let me tell ya, God's love for you is so great that it surpasses all the love that could ever come from anyone else. God loved you from the very first moment he created you, even before your parents knew who you were.

We disappoint people a lot, we are human and we sin. That doesn't matter to God, he sent his son so we could sin. You are his Beloved unconditionally. You are greatly loves and dear to His heart. A song that is a great reminder of this is David Crowders How He Loves. "He is jealous for me, Love's like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy." His love is as strong as a hurricane on a tree for you and for every person. So next time you are feeling down on yourself for whatever the reason, remember that God has a plan for you, he loves, and he created you this way for a certain reason.

tl/dr: It is okay to cry. God made you uniquely in his image. You are of infinite worth.

"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us" Saint Augustine