Self-Worth

Nutritionists like to quote the ancient adage, “You are what you eat.” While it is true that our body is basically made of and sustained by what we eat, that’s not the essential constituent of our being, or even of our personality. In his book Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? John Powell says, “If I am anything as a person, it is what I think, judge, feel, value, honor, esteem, love, hate, fear, desire, hope for, believe in and am committed to.” None of these basic functions and qualities is, of course, contingent on what one eats.

Look closely at your own core values. Which do you consciously cultivate: compassion? loyalty? justice? honesty? If you want to know what your core values are, and hence your real self-worth, ask yourself this simple question: How would you like your family and friends to describe you to others? The answer will sharply define your core values.

Clearly each element in our value system can be cultivated by our own efforts, and further sublimated by God through his “abiding presence.”

Trusting God in the context of this abiding presence implies believing in God’s personal love for each of us individually. That divine love is perceived as more tender and intimate as our core values become more refined, and that love ranges from all eternity in the past through this present moment and into an endless future. Just knowing this makes it easy to upgrade our more noble aspirations, and this, in turn, upgrades our sense of self-worth and leads us to delight in trustfully and unhesitatingly abandoning ourselves to his embrace. Trust actively enables us to cooperate with God in his constant loving desire to improve us, rather than watch us piously reproach ourselves as worthless.

This excerpt is from the book Pathways of Trust, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.