It is surreal to me that Jen Claire Shares has turned 1 year old! What a journey this year has been. A rollercoaster of restrictions, reactions, responses and realness. A year that in many ways we do not want to relive, but a year that has birthed so much more than I could ever have imagined.
Do you love your birthday? Well if you do, then this next statement is going to mess with your mind… But I really struggle to celebrate my birthday. Nothing negative has ever happened on my birthday but as I get older, I realise that I am getting older, and the fear of getting older and not achieving the ideals for my life that I had in mind becomes increasingly more apparent, and ultimately, I just really don’t want to celebrate perceived failure.
You didn’t see that coming, right?
And you’re probably thinking, so what’s the big deal about celebrating the birthday of jenclaireshares.com.
Well, the perspective of how I choose to embrace birthdays is shifting, In many ways this is as a result of learning that we are created to be human beings, not just human doings.
Our humanity and worth is not found in what we do, but in who we choose to be.
For too long I have identified myself as a human doing, so focused on things I needed to achieve that I was losing sight of who I needed to be. I was losing sight of where my value and worth should be found.
If we place our value and worth on the things we do, we will never measure up to the standard of perfection that we expect of ourselves. Or the ideal life timeline that we have set for ourselves [I know I’m not the only one who had a plan for what I expected my life to look like by 25].
When human beings find their value and worth in the mere fact that they exist, then we start to understand our true worth. A worth that can only be defined by God!
In the beginning, God created the very first human being. He made him in God’s image, reflecting God’s nature. That’s our first responsibility as human beings. To reflect God’s nature. I was also reminded recently that Adam’s first day on earth was not spent doing anything, actually, Adam’s first day on earth was the day God rested.
Wow, so we’re not created to work to rest, but we’re created to rest so that we can be effective and productive in our work.
The very first human spent his first day on earth as a human being, not doing anything to increase his value. God sees our value, regardless of what we do. Personally, that is worth celebrating human beings, every day!
God is not lazy, so in no way does a human being exist to do nothing, actually quite the opposite. But if I don’t remember that I am so much more than just the things I do, I will misplace my value and worth in what I do rather than who I am called to be.
Misplaced value and worth, means that I will never be satisfied with what I accomplish, I am always looking for something else to do, another problem to solve, another challenge to take on, because I am so desperately wanting to increase my own worth.
And although in society today this is seen as success, it is only true success when we recognize the true source of our worth.
I am also so reminded in scripture that God never gave anyone a time line for their lives – by this age, you should have achieved this – God had completely different plans for every person, because life should not be determined by a timeline.
Time is worth so much more than being confined to a specific timeline.
You are worth so much more than being confined to a specific timeline.
Because our value is not restricted to the things we do, our achievements and the milestones we reach, we are worth celebrating every moment of every day.
Every year we are faced with new opportunities, new milestones, new moments that will take our breathe away if we choose to embrace time and hold onto the truth that we are valuable human beings, designed with purpose and passion no matter what we humanly do.
Everyone deserves to be celebrated for existing! You are worth celebrating!
JCS
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