Treated of Little Value

I had to stop writing to write. I had to stop, because even though I was transcribing a message the words were penetrating my own heart. Convicting me. It would have been far too easy to listen to the words I was hearing and want to point the finger…oh how I wanted to and did!

There were few moments here and there that I was thinking, oh this person needs to hear this message. But the more I listened over and over again, and the longer I typed the words began to no longer be simple words that someone else needs to hear…they were words my own stubborn self needed to hear.

I sat for a moment and realized the truth of what I was hearing and typing. As I listened this is what echoed in my heart:

We treat people according to the value and worth we have perceived and decided they have…to us.

“We treat people according to how we see them.”-Zig Ziglar 

Not the value and worth that God says they have. Without giving too much away of what I am writing, we process people. We do! I do!

We evaluate, classify, judge and then label people. We all do it! Once we have labeled someone…we place a value on him or her and then treat them accordingly.

Are they someone we let in close or someone we keep at a safe distance? Do we meet up to talk to them or do we meet up with others to talk about them? 

What hurts is when we have people in our lives who we know have labeled us and are treating us according to how they have labeled us….but the conviction comes when we realize we do it to. We are not just having it done to us, we are also doing the evaluating, assessing, classifying, judging and labeling, and then deciding someone’s value.

Anyone else having his or her feet stepping on besides me!!!

You can tell what something means to you by the way you treat it. You can tell the value someone places on something by how well they take care of it and protect it. You can tell the same with people. You can tell when someone values someone else by the way they treat him or her. I don’t just mean “romance.” It’s easy to treat someone you love with value, love and respect. But what about people that have hurt you? What about people that don’t have anything to offer you? What about people that flat our are not nice? What about people get on your nervous? What about people who don't agree with you? What about people who have cheated you? What about when it's not convenient? The list could go on and on!  It’s easy to love someone who loves you. It’s easy to love someone is behaving in a way that is loveable.

If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.  If you are kind only to your friends,[a] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.- Matt 5:46-48

I have a long way to go, but oh how I have valued people so little! Oh how I have not seen people the way God sees them and then treated them according to the value that Jesus places on people. Jesus made it clear on the cross we were worth dying for, so who do we think we are that we can treat people based on the value WE perceive they have. 

I am preaching to myself here...just so you know! Lol 

As long as they having something to offer, don't hurt us, don't cross us, don't get on our nervous, do what we say, act like we think they should, respond the way and when we think they should respond, look the way we want them to look...see a pattern. As long as they don't fall from our pedestal we're good. But the moment they don't live up to our expectations what happens...they are not longer seen as someone valueable. They are seen as someone expendable--something that can be thrown away because they do you no good now. They get in the way. They are distraction. In our eyes they use to have value and worth, but now they don't. 

Yes, to God they still do! Their value and worth has not changed, but we treat them as if it has. Let's be honest. 

I'm still on a journey with this!!! Oh, how I want healing for this in my own life! I want to no longer treat people based on how I see them, but to see them and therefore treat people how Jesus would!