A Child's Need For Worth - Personal Value

We learned that a sense of belonging comes from feeling loved and accepted.  Similarly, a sense of worth comes from feeling valued.  Kids yearn for their parents’ love and approval.  If they don’t feel accepted by mom and dad, children assume that something’s wrong with them, or that they’re not good enough to be loved.  When our child has done something wrong, we can seize it as an opportunity to teach them that even though they have done what is wrong, we still love them.

As followers of Jesus, we are valuable because God values us.  First, He creates us in His image.  This means we are priceless!  Then He forgives us and gives us new life in Him.  What a beautiful picture of how valuable each of us is to God!

In a tangible way, the parent-child relationship is a learning lab of God’s relationship with us.  As we love and accept our children, in spite of their (and our) wrongs and failures, they experience a sense of their personal value.  Then our children know that we believe in them, and they can see themselves as valuable.  This paves the way for them to understand that they are valuable to God. 

We hold the key to our child’s sense of worth.  What are some ways we can demonstrate to them how valuable they are?

Psalm 139:17-18  “How precious also are Thy thoughts to me, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand…”