Value: Loving the Potter By Loving the Pots

How do you make someone feel valuable?

This has been a question that guys have been asking for centuries. We want to know how to make girls feel important, and we want to know how to tell girls how much we value them. For some guys, it's hard to express our feelings and show that we care. But this is a question that isn't restricted to how men treat women: it's a question that applies to every kind of relationship. As the owner of a small business company, how can you make your employees feel valued? As the pastor of a church, how can you make your church family feel important? As a little league baseball coach, how can you show them that they are worth something? As a parent, how can you show your children that you care?

I believe that the first two qualities of servant romance- respect and value- are intertwined and interrelated. I believe that respecting someone and valuing someone are very similar. To respect means to treat others as if they are important. That means you treat those in lowly positions with the same regard as those with in high positions. You give equal respect to everyone, and you respect everyone. But respect also means to treat others the same way you want to be treated. The definition of value is very similar. To value someone means to treat someone as if they are worth something- because they are.

So how do you show people that you think they are worth something? Ultimately, it's all in how you treat them. To make someone feel valuable, you have to make them feel like they are important and uniquely gifted. You have to make them feel like they can contribute and be beneficial. And you've got show them that you care about them enough to invest in them.

The best example of this in all of history is Jesus Christ. Think about it. He loved His followers enough to die for them. That takes value to a whole new level. In John 15:13, Jesus says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Not many leaders in history have died to save their followers. But Jesus did. And He took it to a whole new level.

If you want to be like Christ, then make your friends, your peers, your family, and everyone else in your life feel valued. Don't make the mistake of taking them for granted- you never know how much time you have left with them. Also, don't make the mistake of thinking you are better than someone else. God values all people the same, and it's disrespectful to God to be disrespectful to others. If you're not convinced, then read Matthew 25:31-46. It's the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, and the point Jesus gets across is that how you treat people is really how you are treating God. If you don't value the pots, you don't value the Potter. And if you don't value the creation, you don't value the Creator. So if you want to love God, then love the people He died for.