Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Blog

Value-added life.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

I'm always hearing about value-added agriculture, the method of creating a final product that has more value than the raw materials.

I wonder about value-added life.

In an earlier post, I briefly touched on some ideas I had about beauty, and whether or not it was definable or if it depended upon the "eye of the beholder."

On my bookcase is a sea shell. It is fairly ordinary, an orange and white fan-shaped shell with a chip on one edge. The shell has little value, until I turn it over and see, in small letters, what I wrote on it in pen: "Given to me by Cody, 2003."

The shell has value added to it because it is from my nephew and therefore I value it. It isn't just a sea shell any longer.

I wonder about that shell, and about beauty, and about people and all the things in this world that are supposedly worthless and all the things we are told to treasure. Things have value not because of something exterior, but because we allow them to have worth, because we decide they are worthwhile. Things are beautiful because we think they are beautiful. People are important because we make them so.

I love this understanding.

Think of the power we have, each day, to add value to someone, to something, previously seen as worthless. Find the worth, I tell myself, for it's there. Make it valuable. I wish I could grab onto this better, so much better that I could let people add value to my life and let myself believe it. It is hard, when I don't see many aspects of what I am and what I do as valuable.

Everything, from magazines to television, tell us why we aren't valuable, but what we could do to improve ourselves and add value to our lives. "Get thin. Get healthy. Buy these clothes. Wear this jewelry. Drive this car. You're worth it!" Is there anything more empty and frustrating that trying to prove you have value with all these exterior things, trying to increase my own value through some bizarre personal marketing attempt?

Jesus made us valuable. There was nothing we could do to even touch how He did it. He made us valuable. The worth is there, if we take the time to see it.

I hate that I've let someone tell me I'm not valuable until I jump through some hoops and get perfect skin or great clothes. And I hate that I've forgotten to add value to other people.

I think I'm going to try doing some value-adding.