People of Walmart

They are all over the internet and if you search the words "People of Walmart" you will find loads of pictures of people whose fashion sense and clothing etiquette are not quite up to par with the standards of society. We look at the pictures and laugh and cringe, and say "what were they thinking." We've all had those moments, we've possibly done it in person. We look at the outward and had our private laugh and are slightly encouraged about our own looks, at least we aren't that bad.
The thing that we often forget as we look and laugh that they are people just like us. Now I know you all want to throw things at me, and say "Never!" It's true, we aren't any better then anyone else. You can't say what is going on in their lives.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 
We are God's handiwork, that does not apply to just the pretty people on the outside. Each and every person falls into this category. Not just the pretty people who have it all together on the outside. It's the people of Walmart, it's the homeless man on the street, it's each and every person. When you think about how God made us as his Masterpiece, His creation that is most highly esteemed over everything else it's nearly unbelievable.
The Grand Canyon, one of the seven wonders of the world, people stop and take pictures of it. They come from miles around just to see this beauty. A sunset, painted with colors that don't exist any where else, we take pictures and try to capture the beauty in paintings. The night sky with the moon shining radiantly, and the stars in their place in the sky, you can't capture that on camera. These things of beauty and wonder, they do not compare to the handiwork that God put into each person.
Our value and our worth is so much more then this things, these moments of beauty are fleeting. The beauty of creation around does not amount to what God created in us. How amazing is that, the next time you stop to take a picture of a beautiful landscape or something awe inspiring and beautiful, turn the camera around, take that selfie. No matter what you look like or what category you fall into according to society, you are beautiful. You are a Masterpiece, a handiwork of God, worth so much more then we could imagine.

Selfie!

How much am I worth?

If you didn't know, then I will tell you now, I was in an abusive marriage. I tell myself that it didn't start out that way, but looking back I see there was something there to start with. I felt alone and abandoned in a room full of people. There was so much pain that I pushed it down, ate it away, and let my life go with the flow. There were days when I would cry, but no one outside of my house would see it happen. I hid myself from the world, I was so beaten down with words that I felt I had lost all value.
Value, it is different than other things. You can lose your house, your car, your eyesight, or a limb; it still does not give you value. Value is in our very soul, it helps us to see ourselves as God sees us.

"Since You are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life." Isaiah 43:4 NIV

The first time I read this verse I was in a better place, I had already taken my steps to get out of the abusive relationship. I saw myself as thin, even good looking to a degree. I still questioned myself, how could anyone love me? I may be thin now, but I was fat before, I have 2 kids and stretch marks. I felt discarded, used up, and worthless. I could talk myself up a good game on the outside, but on the inside I was still trying to cover the pain, fill in the knife wounds that words had made to my heart. I was exhausted and tired, working a new job, being mom, and I was in the stairwell at work when God brought this verse back to me. I had read it in my devotions a day or two before and skimmed over it, with not much meaning.
That night in the stairwell I was searching for that love, that value, and I realized it was already there. I am precious, I am honored in His eyes, and He loves me. He loves me so much that He was willing to give others in my place, His Son in my place. This was over a year and ago, and little did I realize that it was just the beginning of my healing.
Now if life worked just the way I wanted it to, I would have been able to move on from there and never heard another word about it. The thing is that I'm a little stubborn (duh), and usually it takes me a little while to get the point. I continued about my life, and though I remembered those words I didn't let them ingrain themselves in my soul. Instead I was driven to my knees recently by sheer exhaustion, realization that I couldn't do it alone anymore.
In as much as I had given my life over to God, I wasn't trusting him to be my partner. I had to face things that no man could walk beside me with, things that were only for me. I didn't want to do it on my own, and I knew God was the only one who could walk beside me. I searched the heart of God to find myself. What I found was someone who had value, someone who's worth was not decided by anyone's perception or judgement. So I can be free to be me, to be the person who God created me to be. I am free to be a geek, a nerd, a mother, a friend, a woman. I hold on to the hope that someday God will give me the desire of my heart, but until then I will stand, with God by my side. This woman knows that she is one of great value and great worth, and while I am free to be me, I am not valueless, I am priceless.