Neither Male or Female for we are all One in Christ

“Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is believing you're worthy of the trip.” 

(Glenn Beck)

This Youtube clip is currently the newest video to go viral with many of my friends on Facebook sharing it around. The video deals with the idea of female self worth including a man telling all women who watch that they are cherished and smart. It is of course a great video and obviously will speak truth and light to many situations but I have to ask myself this question.

How did it get to the point that cheesy, wonderfully American videos have become the form of self-worth for women across the globe? Is this honestly helping the problem?

I am not a negative individual and I am the last person to discourage anyone- but there are aspects of this video which I not only disagree with but which really annoy me! Whilst the sentiments this gentlemen shares are obviously from the heart and are the truth- he is essentially a good looking guy telling women their great qualities starting with 'you are beautiful' (why women's best qualities seem to always be seen as their outward appearence baffles me) I know from experience that whilst growing up, I would often gain my self worth from being loved and cherished by boys, thriving on any compliment or positive thing they said about me. Whilst encouragement is SO important, encouragement from human sources should not replace the self worth you can gain in Jesus and filling that hole with human entities is going to end in disaster. I certainly worry that the fact this is a good looking guy telling women they are cherished is treading on thin ice. Why not a female? Why not an older gentlemen who could play the role as a grandfather or father figure? Why an aesthetically pleasing young and attractive male whom many young girls watching these videos would want to gain approval from? You should not look to others to build your confidence but look inside you to see the treasure within.

But that is enough of moaning! I believe that simply the nature of the person of Jesus and many aspects of the bible are sufficient for all women to gain complete self-worth!
Many people would argue that the bible, Christianity and subsequently Jesus are degrading of women. At face value, women do seem misrepresented in the bible, with the 12 disciples being male and Paul saying some interesting comments about women in the church (Many of which I and many others would argue is due to specific churches and not as the 'church' as a whole but unfortunately that is a completely different rabbit hole to go down and would take far too much time to debate on this blog post- watch this space if it interests you!!) However, I would argue that if you read into the nature of Jesus, you can see an individual who deeply cared for and cherished women as a gender.

This is a separate post from one about feminism, which I am incredibly passionate about, but more emphasis on female self worth. Whenever I feel particularly down trodden simply due to my gender I go back to my namesake, 'Lydia' seller of purple cloth which was one of the first leaders of a the early church and she was....dun dun duuuunnnn... FEMALE. Or the pure epicness that is Deborah in the bible who heard directly from God and lead the most awesome battle against some pretty nasty people leading the entire of Israel to victory boldly proclaiming,' ' By the glory of God Sisera (nasty man) will fall at the hands of a woman!' Or Esther who saved the entire Jewish race through bravery or Rahab, a prostitute who helped Hebrew spies and thus became part of the lineage of Jesus.

The fact that some women were Jesus' most loyal followers and never deserted him when his disciples, being the last to leave him whilst he was dying on the cross. A group of women were also the first individual's Jesus revealed himself to after his resurrection, with Mary Magdalene having an incredibly touching and personal encounter. The woman at the well was the first individual Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah to and Jesus would take a lot of time to teach women such as Mary (Martha's sister) and later Martha on a personal level, which in the day in the times Jewish men would daily pray, 'Thank You God I am not a gentile, not a slave and not a woman,' is incredibly powerful.

Jesus used stories about women to explain theological concepts such as the woman with the lost coin and even describes himself like a mother hen wanting to gather together her chicks. In general, women  have a very special place in the bible and are treasured by God by the fact they are used and pinnacle to the plan of Jesus. But most exciting of all is that most women in the bible are treasured for their bravery, intellect, confidence NOT just outward appearences which so annoys me about self worth videos like this today.
Fundamentally, Jesus, the perfect son of God, died on the cross for all women across the globe and that is something to grab hold of and treasure.

I will no doubt come to this topic again and again as I believe it is so important, but in regards to this video- ladies- look within yourself, at the person of Jesus and in the bible and that is where your self worth inhabits NOT random American boys telling you are beautiful!

Peace out :) <3