One man's trash is another Man's treasure

I've been watching a few women go through bad relationships and breakups from a distance lately, and boy, does it bring back memories! I remember my life before Christ, and it was a steady stream of bad relationships. I was always missing someone, pining over someone, thinking about someone, wishing someone would call. I seemed to think that my ultimate goal in life was to find Mr. Right. I was always looking, always hoping that day would be the day I would find the man who would make me happy. I didn't know that there wasn't a man on earth who could do that for me, so life was a continual heartache. Since I was literally looking for love in all the wrong places and choosing men who had no idea how to respect or love a woman, all of those relationships ended badly. I felt thrown away, like a useless and leftover bag of garbage.

I had learned from women around me to look to someone else to tell me my value. We women want to be appreciated. We want to feel loved. We want people to notice what we do for them and do nice things back. We measure our worth by other people's opinion's of us. We work hard to make them feel happy and then our joy depends on whether or not they reciprocate. If they don't, we're left feeling defeated, disappointed, and as worthless as the kitchen trash that goes out at the end of the day.

But trash is a funny thing. You'd be surprised at some of the things people throw away. I have a friend who has a beautiful home full of beautiful things other people were throwing away, including a flat top stove, a kitchen sink, a bathtub, tables, you name it. You would never believe that someone else was going to throw that stuff away if you walked into her warm and charming home. She has gotten many years of use out of those things, and there was never anything wrong with them; someone else was just tired of them, I suppose. But their value did not decrease just because another person didn't appreciate them.

There are many reasons the Bible warns us, "Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save." (Psalm 146:3) One of them is this: one man's trash is another Man's treasure. 1Samuel 16:7 quotes God as saying, "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." People judge your worth by what they can see, and sometimes they're crazy for not at least appreciating that. But God sees ALL of you, and guess what? You are valuable beyond measure to Him!

Even though He knew you would turn away from Him, even though He knew you would search for your worth and salvation in another person instead of Him, even though He knew you would break his heart over and over again by disregarding His holy and perfect laws, He still bankrupted heaven to buy you back from the darkness. He sent the very best of heaven to come down and find YOU. Jesus came down to this dirty little planet and lived for YOU, so you could know the way to live. He came down and died for YOU, so that you would have a way back to the only true God. Jesus was and is and will always be the absolute best of everything, and the only One who can ever complete you. You are worth His time and His trouble and His pain. In the light of everything Jesus did to prove His mighty love for you, you are absolutely priceless.

Whose trash pile is He searching to find you? And does it really matter anyway?

Father, thank You that my value doesn't depend on anyone else but You. Thank You that I was worth everything You did to save me. Help me to understand today that however someone else might disregard or hurt me, I can come back to the truth that Jesus loves me. Help me to know and live like that's enough.

In His wonderful love,
Amy




copyright 2012, Amy Wallace