You are remarkable and wonderful.
Some days, I don’t feel remarkable. You know the feeling. It’s the day when you’re running the kids out of the house for school and you realize you still have slippers on and you forgot to pack lunches. Or, something was said that you instantly regretted. That doesn’t feel remarkable...or wonderful.
We are our own worst critics, right?! It might be that I forgot about an appointment because I didn’t put it in my calendar, or I tried something new and failed, or I just couldn’t keep the house as picked up or clean as I would like. Maybe for you, it’s that work deadlines are getting the best of you or that a relationship is going south and you have pinned the blame solely on yourself. All of these are very sensible reasons to feel unremarkable.
However, God “remarkably and wonderfully made” us. “Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.” These clips from Psalm 139:14 are beautifully written and I ponder on it to remind myself that I am meaningful and precious at the same time as being forgetful, brash, or prideful.
If we let our self worth be determined by what we do or say (or don’t do or say), we find ourselves on a slippery slope where we determine our worth, not our creator. We are the one sheep that He goes looking for, and the one coin that He turns the house upside down to find. Even with our flaws, He looks for us and, to go deeper, He searches us.
Consider this:
Romans 8:26-28
“...The Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”
It’s ok to acknowledge our shortcomings and work to improve with Jesus as our example while knowing that we are precious and have purpose. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive. We have the Spirit to help us express what we cannot. Isn’t it wonderful that he can go to God for us when we don’t know what to say? How encouraging that all things work together for good even through our failures.
On days or weeks that I intensely feel this gnawing of failure, I remember that God determines my worth and that He is constantly searching for me, His precious coin. Hold on to this encouragement that He made you and He doesn’t make mistakes. Hold these thoughts higher than the failures, words, or actions that try to keep you down.
I am made wondrously and remarkably by an intentional creator, and so are you.