Seeing the “happy” couples around Valentine’s Day, I used to think, “I wish I had someone special!” This year is different for me: I am happy with being single, and it’s awesome! The society we live in makes us feel like our worth is found in relationships, in material things, or in what we successfully accomplish. However, thankfully we are worth a lot more than that.
The truth is simple, yet so hard to believe sometimes. My worth does not come from what anyone else thinks of me, but I have worth because God made me in His image and likeness. The world and everything in it was created by God, but God chose man to be special. God said, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness” (Gen 1:26). Have you ever noticed that it says “US” and “OUR”? We exist because of an unimaginable amount of love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our existence flows out of the power of the love between the three persons of the Trinity. “God is love” (1 Jn 4:10), and we exist because of that love.
Because I have spent more time in prayer this year as a missionary, the truth that I exist because of the immense love of the Father has become more and more real to me in the depths of my heart. It’s so freeing to believe that I have worth because God called me His beloved daughter. I have joy because God made me perfectly. I don’t need any guy or clothes or makeup to have worth. I am worth it as I am.
Before I am a girlfriend, wife, or sister, I am a daughter of God. First, I have to be happy with who I am as daughter of God, and only then I can have true joy in my vocation. So rejoice, even if you are single this Valentine’s Day. God made you perfectly, and there is freedom when you can be happy just being you.
