Regarding your worth in a culture that wants to see you for sale.

Dear Daughter,  

I hope that by now you have heard: You are precious. 

You are not precious because of how you look or what you wear. You’re not precious because of your accomplishments, good deeds, or kind words. You are not even precious because of your virtue, modesty, or intelligence. Rather, you are precious because you are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

You are the only you that has ever been and will ever be. 

The writer C.S. Lewis once said “You don’t have a soul. You area soul,” and this is true. You are a soul. A precious one. Conceived in the mind of God and created by His hand, in His image, for a purpose. You matter. You have worth beyond what can be calculated. There is no price that can reflect your value. 

Unfortunately, Dear Daughter, you are surrounded by lies about your worth. This is by design. You have been born and raised in a culture dedicated to causing and weaponizing confusion. This world seeks to leave you deceived and lost, and your self-worth is an early and constant battleground.

The main weapon of the enemy is lies, and they are masterfully crafted. Some of the lies you have been told are subtle, maybe even beautiful. They’re small things that seem benign on the surface, but underneath they are a twisted snarl of treachery and devastation. It’s brilliant, really. If the enemy’s attacks were all aggressive and blatant, it would be so much harder to deceive you. 

But our enemy is clever, and so some of his lies are attractive. These lies seek to normalize offense until you are no longer offended. Like how taking very small doses of venom over time makes you immune to it, these lies work in the same way. Abuse and exploitation are glamorized, filtered, and marketed to look like fulfillment, success, and even love, and they’re fed to you everywhere you look. 

Then there are the lies that are brazen and bold. They are screamed at you from countless social media posts of beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes, living in beautiful homes, and engaging in things that are undeniably ugly. These are the lies that turn your stomach and leave you feeling hollow and sick. But they’re also provocative…and can become a sort of narcotic. Something you know is toxic, and yet continue to seek out again and again. 

Whatever form they take, the totality of lies is meant to slowly break down your sensibilities and chip away at your reservations. The aim is to numb your heart to truth so that when you are eventually deceived, you won’t even know it.  

The culture that we are all immersed in, and the evil behind it, want to convince you that, as a woman, to have worth in this world, you have to earn validation by showing it all, offering it all, and giving it all. 

I’m sure you’ve already received the message and felt the pressure: You are told that since your value is not tied to your body, what you do with your body doesn’t really matter. The world tries to convince you that it’s simultaneously degrading for men to objectify you (which it is), yet somehow empowering to sell yourself for a monthly fee. You are encouraged to monetize your sexuality and youth, while your dignity and self-respect are dismissed as inconsequential. It’s just your body, after all. It doesn’t really matter what you do with it. Right? 

Own your sexuality! 

Market yourself and be your own brand!

It’s easy money! 

Be a boss-babe! 

You get to decide your boundaries! 

Just do it for a few years and it will give you financial freedom beyond your wildest dreams!

Dear One, don’t allow yourself to believe what you know in your gut is a lie. You cannot divorce your head and heart from your body. You are not a collection of compartmentalized pieces, rather, you are a whole, complete, and precious soul. You cannot do something with your body without your heart and mind also bearing the consequences. Do not be deluded into putting a price tag on that which is priceless. Empowerment cannot be found in treating yourself as a commodity. When people are sold, human dignity is lost. This is true, even when you sell yourself.

Push the lies away, Precious Girl, and wrap yourself in The Truth. Learn to say no when the world whispers deceit meant to convince you that degrading yourself is empowering and consequence-free. Stand firm on the conviction that your worth is not something you have to earn by giving pieces of yourself away.

Dear Daughter, refuse to listen to a world that will use you and then discard you like a forgotten toy. Instead, listen to God who created you and loves you without condition: 

“For you created my innermost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14

In this Psalm, the word fearfully doesn’t mean to be fearful of, rather it means reverence. You were created with great reverence and wonder. You weren’t made on a whim. You weren’t a last-minute idea that God haphazardly threw together. You aren’t a mass-produced, faceless number, generated by stardust and chance. You weren’t an accident of the universe, and you are not just another body in an ocean of humanity. 

No, Dear Girl. 

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born, I set you apart.”

Jeremiah 1:5 

God considered you carefully, planned you with joy, and created you with intention and purpose. You’re here because the Creator of the universe put profound thought into you and spoke you into existence.

You, Dear One, have been given a calling that only you can answer. You have been equipped with skills, talents, and experiences unique to you, and desperately needed in this dark world. You are multi-faceted, dynamic, intelligent, and so much more than your outward beauty. Your name is spoken with love in Heaven’s courts, and your future is full of hope.

You, Dear One, are no object to be marketed and sold, but a soul to be treasured. 

Remember that Dear Daughter, because the pressure to treat yourself as a commodity is real, but so is the God who says your worth is beyond measure. Standing against the lies of our culture is hard, but you are never standing alone.

Sincerely & With All My Love.

Open the Bible to read more about your value as a Daughter of God. Some more verses on your worth and value:

“For (you) are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for (you) to do.” Ephesians 2:10

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them: Male and female, He created them.” Genesis 11:27

“I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

“I will never forget you. See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name.” Isaiah 49:16

“She is worthy of respect, temperate and trustworthy in everything.” 1 Timothy 3:11

“Nothing can separate you from God’s love in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:39

“For God so loved (you) that He gave His one and only Son. If (you) believe in Him, you will not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

“See what great love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God!”

1 John 3:1