Quieting the Voice of Insignificance

If you’re anything like me you occasionally battle the feeling of insignificance. You watch as others excel with ease in projects you sometimes struggle. Maybe it’s parenting. Your best friend’s kids seem sweeter and kinder than yours do. And how can it be that every time you go over for coffee her house is spotless?
It can be enough to send you to bed and pull the covers over your head. But know your significance counts in ways you may never know.
Take my dad for example. He quit school and worked on an assembly line in a factory all his life. Even though management had asked him to consider other positions such as Forman or Floor Supervisor, his focus never desired that. All he wanted was to work (seemingly insignificant) and earn an honest day’s wage. To most, he probably met his goal. He never made much of a splash with others.
Instead, he chose to invest his time and energy into his children. He taught us—many times through his actions—how to be people of character. And even though past hurts kept him from attending church, he modeled Christ every day to his children. He shared his time and taught the value of Truth, telling us things our Heavenly Father tell us still:

• I was my dad’s princess, and I’m also God’s (So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. Galatians 3:26)
• My dad said he would always love me, just like my Heavenly Father (… neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39)
• My dad had plans for me, yet God’s plans are even greater (^“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11)

There was a time that I believed voices that lied and built my feelings of insignificance. Those were some of the darkest days of my life. But God’s words found a way back to my heart and rang true. I was still His princess and nothing would ever stop Him from loving me.
And His plans for me live on. Even though I walked away from God’s plans for me during those dark days, He uses those years now when I speak at conferences and events about God’s gift of Mercy and Grace. I write—often through personal examples—that there is nothing that separates us from our Heavenly Father’s love.
Trust these words: learn how to quiet the voice of insignificance when you hear it. Sometimes we hear new voices that offer words that hit our vulnerabilities. These voices are speaking lies. Listen, instead, to the loving voice of Jesus.
While Truth sometimes hurts, it’s always trustworthy and never grows from insignificance.
Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. (Psalm 136:26)