Worthy of Love

Once upon a time there lived a young princess. She loved to spend her days singing, dancing, giggling, running, twirling, and the like. She was surrounded by a kind, royal family and was adored by the subjects in the kingdom. She grew up knowing that she was precious.

But, that all changed.  

As she advanced in years, enemies of the princess began to creep into the kingdom undetected to all but her. Jealousy found his way into the castle walls. He told the princess that her younger brother, the prince, was widely renowned as the greater youth and that everyone in the land wished him to be crowned king. She was far too imperfect to hold the title of "queen." In fact, Jealousy pointed out that there were even many peasants in the kingdom who would be much more suited to rule over the land than her. The princess began to be a bit more guarded with her heart and biting in her speech while conversing with others, whom had qualities she wished that she possessed. Jealousy left the castle with a successful grin on his distorted face.  

Since the princess had not turned the foreigner over to the palace guards, Jealousy saw this as a golden opportunity. He decided to visit the princess again. But this time, he brought with him Selfishness and Anger. The three of these uninvited guests followed the princess wherever she went and proceeded to take turns whispering into her ear. At first their presence made the girl uncomfortable, but it did not take her long to have great difficulty in distinguishing their voices from her own.  

Day after day, the princess allowed these creatures to have a deep impact on her mind. She slowly began to develop several habits based on the never ending flow of input from Jealousy, Selfishness, and Anger. It appeared to others as if she had become a different person. This is when Jealousy brought in one more friend of his: Fear. Fear, breathless, tumbled through the castle door, rushed up the staircase, and bolted into the tower where he found the princess with her arms wrapped around her legs and her head tucked between her knees. She had fallen so far in such a short amount of time that she hardly knew what was happening. She hardly knew who she was anymore. Fear, who arrived right on queue, approached the sobbing princess and told her one thing and one thing only:

"You are not worthy of love." 

The girl, whose worst fear had just been confirmed, lost sight of who she was. She ceased to see herself as the beautiful, talented, generous, sensitive, intelligent, and lovely person that she was. The princess clung so frantically to the lie that Fear had fed her that she decided to run away. After all, she did not deserve to be treated like the royalty that she never was...

"Wait--I guess I never was a princess."

* * *

I think that if we are honest with ourselves, we have all been in the same situation as the princess. Or maybe we never believed that we were a princess or worthy of love to begin with. Jealousy, selfishness, anger, fear, etc. continue to eat away at us until we believe that there is nothing left of us. If there is nothing left, how can we be expected to make a gift of ourselves to anyone? How can we find happiness?  

Well, we need to start by exposing the lies.  

That's right.  LIES.

Don't let the devil deceive you. He comes to us in many different forms (often many at the same time), and he will do anything within his power to get you to believe his absurd claims. Although it can be a real struggle to view yourself (and others) with dignity, we have to try.  

Each and every person--yes, that includes you--was created to love, by Love, and for love. This is our vocation, our calling. If anyone tells you otherwise, it is a lie. It is simply not how we were made. When we actively participate in our call to love, we become much happier, fulfilled people.  

However, people cannot merely be told that they are worthy of love. They have to be shown love. Once we are shown love, we must in turn give love. The more love we give, the less room there will be for anything else inside of us. Anger, selfishness, and other vices will be forced out of us by the abundance of love.  

But, unconditional love is hard work. It is not something we succeed at as soon as we become committed to making the sacrifices necessary for love. It is a lifelong mission that we must consciously choose to live for every single moment of our daily lives. There will be failures, certainly, but we must pick ourselves up each time that we fall. It will become easier the more we realize that we are worthy of Love--we were created for Love! So, let us unite ourselves to Love so that He may guide us unto all Truth. When we do, we shall begin to see less of our sinful selves and more of our true dignity. Not only does our dignity rest in the fact that we were created for and are worthy of love, but that we are precious princes and princesses of the One who is Love. 

So, let us love one another as Christ loves us. 

You are worthy. 

You are precious. 

You are loved.