Value of a Person

On Sunday, the youth Pastor was giving a sermon on the roles that men and women play in the Bible.  He talked about how God saw both men and women as equals in their value, but that they had different roles to play in life.  Society was the one that first put a higher value on men over women.  The key point was that although we have different roles to play, we are equal in importance and are both loved dearly by God.

So what does cause us to value one person over the other?  The Pastor talked about how feminism, although good in the ideal of letting the world know that women are just as valuable, puts worth of a women in the position she holds.  A female president is more valuable than just a president's wife.  A female administrator is more valuable than a female secretary.  A female principal is more valuable than a female teacher.  A woman with a job is more valuable than a housewife.  Why is this so?  Is it simply because of the income they get?  It can't be the importance of a particular job that they hold because every miniscule job is important for our society to function.  If we're all part of a big clock, some cogs are bigger than others, but even with a tiny cog missing the clock ceases to work.  So is it the money?  Do we value money over other things so much that the ruler we hold against a person is really measuring their bank accounts?

This is an issue that I had been struggling with for a very long period of time.  To put it bluntly, I measured everyone else as superior, inferior, or equal to me based on their education and potential income.  I thought myself better than most others because of my engineering degree.  I became utterly humiliated when I couldn't get a permanent job in that field.  When others asked me about my educational background, I would try to avoid the subject because someone with my background must definitely be well-off by now.

Honestly I think it's because of the way I grew up.  My parents taught me that education defined the person. They would tell me how ashamed they would be to even hold their heads up at work because they didn't go to college.  They would talk in awe about the parents who were able to send their kids off to Ivy Leagues and look down on those whose kids could do no better than a community college.  They told me that when I got to college, they would support me in every fashion if I went to a good school, but that I would be left on my own if I didn't.  On top of all the college talk, they would constantly tell me that I needed a good job that would make lots of money.  Teaching wasn't an option because it didn't pay well enough.  I feel like this upbringing was the reason I chose chemical engineering in the first place.  It was something that I liked to do, something I was good at, and something that had a potential for a nice fat cheque.

After college, after I moved out, when there was absolutely no one around me to influence my perspectives on other people, my ideas slowly began to change.  Everyone is equally valuable.  No matter how smart they are, or how stupid they are, no matter what job they have, what their educational background is, no matter what they wear, or how they speak, and definitely no matter how rich they are, everyone is equal.  Everyone is just as valuable.  Everyone deserves the exact same respect.  Everyone should expect same treatment.  From the rich white people with their millions of dollars and fur coats to the poor brown people with their unwashed hair and smelly clothes, everyone deserves an equal amount of love, respect, and compassion.

I guess this is still something I struggle with.  I have this one friend who talks before she thinks and is definitely not at all smarter than me.  She's short, has a thick accent, isn't very graceful, and although she's cute, one wouldn't consider her desirable.  Every time I talk to her I have to remind myself that she's a child of God, and is just a precious as me and everyone else I like.  I guess that's the main reason I hang out with her still.  Not because I think she's great and amazing and completely worth my time and attention.  (Yes, I know this is mean, and no, she doesn't know.)  But because I still have to learn to see the inner person and beauty in everyone through God's eyes, and not see people through my own eyes.