Posts by Beth

“You are enough.” That is what the billboard said but what does it mean and how do they know if “I” am enough?

Being “enough” seems to have become an important message in a time when insecurities are huge and complacency is more and more the norm. Wanting to understand the message, the internet offered some help. There were many explanations but they were similar. This is a quote from a site called “Joyful through It All.”

The idea behind this phrase is that you are enough as you are right now in this moment. There is nothing that you need to do to make yourself more than you are in order to become enough.

You are worthy as you are. You are enough, meaning that there is nothing you need to change about yourself to be more worthy of love or attention, or to belong. In her book Daring Greatly, Brené Brown describes a common ‘shame based fear of being ordinary’ that we all experience. We fear that we if we don’t stand out from being ordinary, we won’t be enough.

And when we feel like we are not enough, we start telling ourselves stories that limit what we are capable of doing with our lives. These limiting beliefs become our truths, which continue to tell us that we are not enough. (https://www.joyfulthroughitall.com/you-are-enough-meaning/)

The question that stands out to me is whether or not people actually believe that a billboard telling me I am enough or a sign in someone’s yard saying “You matter very much,” or “We’re all in this together,” actually makes an insecure person more secure or a defeated person feel victorious?

Words are empty without actions. On this same website are a list of affirmations (120  of them) that they suggest are a “powerful tool” at increasing our self-worth. One of them is “I am worthy of unconditional love and acceptance just as I am.”

If a depressed person with no gumption to change reads this, does it give them the gumption? If a drug addict, literally wasting their life, reads this, do they smack their heads and get off the drugs? If a woman who has been mistreated by her husband for years reads this, does she suddenly feel lovable?

I get it that billboard companies are trying to keep some message on their boards to bring in business and aren’t really concerned about changing a person’s life. But, those yard signs are worrisome. If someone thinks they have done their part because they bought a sign and placed in their yard, but has failed to actively love their neighbor, they have failed.

Signs that say things like, “You Matter Very Much’ and “We are all in this together” are akin to James 2:14-16,

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

Indeed, when we put our faith in words without deeds, we have offered nothing of significance or help. If we have neighbors or friends who are feeling worthless, how can we “love them as we love ourselves?” (Matthew 22:39)