Episode 136 Am I Worthy of Happiness? Love? Being Treated Well?

Episode 136 Am I Worthy of Happiness? Love? Being Treated Well? In 1992 Wayne’s World came out. A silly show about 2 slacker friends who are trying to promote their cable show. One of their famous cult lines is “We’re not worthy.” They would sing out this phrase whenever something particularly good happened. We used to use this saying to elicit a laugh within our group of friends. I don’t know if any of us ever actually felt that way, we were just goofing around and being silly, but as I talk with people as I do my current work with story one of the primary issues that repeatedly pops up is that many people feel unworthy. Unworthy of good love. Unworthy of a good life. Unworthy of being treated well. They play small because they feel they deserve to be disregarded, heck they don’t deserve something better.  Whether it’s a voice in their head that capitalizes on mistakes they’ve made, or something they have marinated in over the years as others made thoughtless comments, these feelings are no joke. They create small lives and relationships where people feel like they deserve to be treated badly. Let’s talk about why the idea of unworthiness is a lie – in EVERY case.   Am I worthy? Sometimes this isn’t even a question we ask ourselves, it’s just a sense – a feeling we harbor that influences whether we dare to think big, act big, and demand respectful treatment. I think the first question is… worthy of what? Am I worthy to be loved? Am I worthy to be treated well? Am I worthy of happiness? Am I worthy of good fortune? One of the ways that I test an idea is comparing the light it brings. Let me explain: Often times the idea of “worthiness” has something to do with God. Worthiness and God have been linked for as long as we have records/scripture. So here is the question I ask myself. Does God want us to live small – beneath our capability? Does God want us settling for unhappy, abusive or dark situations because we’ve deemed ourselves unworthy? One distinct scripture comes to mind: “The worth of souls is great in the sight of God.” Notice it did not say the worth of a clean soul or a perfect soul is great in the sight of God….no it said the WORTH of a soul is great. If God deems the worth of every soul as great do you think that changes because someone else on this planet told you you weren’t worth much? No. Who do you believe? God or the other? Who creates feelings of self-doubt and unworthiness – would that ever be God? Does that create light or love? No. One of my favorite scriptures is 2Timothy 1 – “For God does not give us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. We are worthy simply because we are children of God. Any other feeling is NOT from him. Our worthiness is not even dependent upon our actions or the side of the tracks we come from, or what other people think of us or say about us. We are worthy of love, happiness, and all good things because we are here.   I asked Laurann Turner, the author of Every Single Day and proponent of self-love and acceptance — you’ll remember her from an episode last month– about the idea of worthiness, we ended up in a big conversation.   Tune into the audio program for our conversation. We are worthy, YOU are worthy, just as you are, to lift your eyes to the light, to seek after good things, to embrace all you are and can be, and go make great things happen. You are worthy of happiness. No one, no action, no way of being can take that away from you. You are worthy of being treated well and expecting that treatment. You are worthy of your greatest happiness. In the Doctrine and Covenants 71:6 – a scripture—it says, “For unto him that receiveth it shall be given more abundantly, even power.” This tells me we need to accept our own worthiness as a child of God. That we need to accept the gifts