When people feel valued, they feel loved, respected, appreciated, and ultimately safe

I’ve been thinking a lot of late about the exhortation of Paul: “value others above yourselves” from Philippians 2:3-4.  Why: in recognition for what we’ve received.  How: through humility, only through humility is it possible.

In essence, we’re only able to value others above ourselves when we’re grateful.

Truly, people go the extra mile when they’re appreciated, and when a person feels appreciated, below it all, they feel valued.  They feel prized, important, worth the time and effort of kindness, patience, grace, compassion and gentleness.

When we value others, ultimately, we feel valued ourselves — by God.

Like joy is an inside job, so is every form of love that gives from an altruistic heart, and every true motive of love is from God.  It’s an inexplicable thing that exudes from deep within us, always without explanation so none of us can take the credit that belongs to God alone.

We can only ever be grateful for the love we’ve received which compels us to give.

Humility is a character trait that always gives back.  The more we sow in love toward others, the more we experience the depth of God’s love, and the more we see others grow in confidence, the more ours blooms, seeing the fruit of kindness flourish.

As hope abounds, peace endures, and joy abides.

The cause is love and effect is love, just as this thing called ‘valuing another above ourselves’ multiplies and keeps ever expanding, as ripples of rings of love serenely keep their pattern ever flowing outwards.  As people feel valued, they want to outdo the others’ love.

Anyone who feels truly valued will always respond by trying to return that love. 

Through the mere act of love, which gives as much as it can, a person feels valued, thought of, considered, and above all, worthy of such love, because love is gift that doesn’t need to be given, but is given through choice — 

“I do this because I WANT to; I CAN, so I DO.”

Very importantly, the yardstick of love is that the other person feels valued, treasured, precious, cherished, adored.

“I do this because I know you will feel loved,” because a loving act is considered by the person receiving it as loving.  If the person receiving the love doesn’t find it loving, it isn’t loving, even if the motive was loving.  The measure of love is the person receiving it feels valued.

This is why valuing others is the supreme way of loving them; feeling valued, even if it feels intangible, is about the best way to make love perceptible and real, and when a person feels valued, they know without a shadow of a doubt they’re loved.

There’s something indomitable about a love that works to the extent that a person feels valued; it’s a force that creates the urge to reciprocate.  The love of valuing others overcomes everything set against love, including demonstrative evils and every ambivalence.

There’s no better way of being human than of valuing others because we feel God’s love.

The love of being valued reminds us of the safety of feeling truly home, as if it were in eternity — our one true Home.  So many have had unsafe homes but feeling valued is close to the concept of feeling at home.  Such a feeling has the essence of sanctuary about it.