What are YOU Really Worth?

13 year old, Nicole Ruhter noticed something that thousands of others had simply passed up. As she walked along the service road of the Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, recently, she saw a tea-colored shape she thought to be a diamond. Even though Nicole was in a part of the park where no one usually looks for diamonds, she discovers a 2.93 carat diamond. A recent appraisal of a slightly bigger diamond estimated its net worth at between $15,000 and $60,000.

It made me think, not of the value of diamonds but of the value that we put on our own lives. A diamond of this size is a rare find indeed. However, few people ever stop to consider the value of their own lives in their existence here on this planet.

Let's take a look at you. However, let's start back 10 generations ago and think about your ancestors. Sometime, around 1300 A.D., it is very likely that a man and woman found each other, feel in love, married and had a baby boy who we'll call John.

Around that same time, another man and woman found each other, feel in love, married and had a baby girl who we'll call Amanda.

It was likely that they lived in Europe, South America, Africa or somewhere in Asia.

John and Amanda grew up, met each other, feel in love, married and had a baby boy. Simultaneously, another couple met, feel in love, married and had baby girl.

Now think of the events, 'near misses', coincidences, broken engagements, decisions to 'marry this person', parental influences and opinions, arranged marriages, religious influences, cultural influences and a thousand other factors that had to fall into place for these couples to find each other, marry and have children.

Even if we surmise that some of the children were born into less than 'ideal' circumstances or to unmarried mothers or other scenarios, we still have to look at the astounding odds that all those babies, meetings, marriages, pregnancies, etc., occurred.

Now multiply this first meeting of John and Amanda by 10. It took all of that get you here on this planet. In fact, it took that same scenario hundreds or even thousands of times to, 'get YOU here on this planet.'

Now consider the DNA, the personal characteristics, the character, the choices and decisions, the genetics, the intelligence and everything else that occurred in these lives that have all influenced and become a part of who YOU are.

If that thought process were not enough to begin to establish the incredible existence and value of you being here on this planet, think of this.

When each of those couples conceived all of those babies, there were at least 10 million seeds that 'could have' fertilized the egg in order for each of them to be born. Now, medical experts have proved that if any ONE of those seeds had not fertilized those eggs, then an entirely different person would have been born other than the one that was.

Let's bring this down to your biological parents. When your parents conceived YOU, there were over 10 million potential people who could have been conceived other than you. All of the other seeds had to die off since YOU were the one that made it to the egg and fertilized it in order for YOU to eventually be conceived and born.

Your life is truly an unexplainable miracle. Even with the flaws or inadequacies your believe that you possess. You are still a miracle.

Why then, based on the facts and not some 'pie in the sky' theory, do we place such a low value on who we are? Why do we possess self-concepts and self-esteem that depreciates who and what we are rather than simply taking the reality of our lives and existence here on this planet and placing the true face value on it?

My friend, your life is a statistical miracle. Not based on my opinion or my desire to encourage, motivate or inspire you. Based on facts.

Your self-worth never changes. It is not a subjective opinion. It is what you are worth no matter how you feel about yourself. You possess the greatest computer that will ever be designed or built. Your brain and the nanoseconds required for you to access information, will never be duplicated by a machine. Your storage for memory can never be duplicated with a magnetic disk.

Your abilities to feel, experience emotion, be happy or feel sadness will never be within the capabilities of a mechanical device.

Your self-concept, self-esteem and much of your self-respect is based on your perception, not on facts. How we 'see ourselves' is largely determined by what we 'believe' about ourselves.

I've heard parents talk about children before and say that their unplanned births was an 'accident'. Through years of negativity, put downs and ignorance in knowing how to bring out the true potential in a child, we established the concept that we were far less than what we truly are.

When many of us were growing up, we heard comments like, 'you'll never amount to anything' or 'you won't ever do much with your life' or, if aspiring to do something significant you might have heard, 'who do you think that you are?' Many parents have innocently believed that they will 'shape their character' or somehow 'bring out the best' in their child by negativity or some other means of manipulating their child's thinking and emotions to act in a certain way.

The reason I wrote this article is to help you to realize 'WHO YOU ARE'. I want to let you know that you being here on this planet is an incredible miracle. That your potential is unlimited. That you 'owe something back' to yourself, to your children and to future generations to begin now, to make accurate assessments of 'who and what you really are'.

With what I've come to understand and know about people, I walk the streets, see people in their cars and interact with people with a view to see their amazing existence on this planet (along with my own). Scientists cannot explain the phenomena of what I've shared with you here. The miracle that YOU, ended up here and now. Without scientific explanation, I have to say that the mystery that YOU were conceived and that YOU were born is somehow spiritual.

In fact, even now as I consider all of this, I have a deep sense that your life was never accidental. That you are so amazing, so full of potential, that YOU were meant to be here.

My encouragement to you is, stop and think about your amazing existence here. Stop and think about your future and what you can become in your life.

Start placing the value on your life that is proved by the shear facts. Start believing in yourself, your life and your potential. Start stepping out and finding out what you are capable of in your life. Start allowing yourself to feel the bigger spiritual forces at work that allowed you to be here in the first place.

I don't know you. We've likely never met. But I know something about you. YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU'VE EVER THOUGHT! I've got proof! YOU CAN DO MORE THAN YOU'VE EVER DREAMED! I know that is fact! THERE ARE LIMITS THAT YOU AND OTHERS HAVE PLACED ON YOUR LIFE THAT YOU NEED TO BREAK THROUGH AND EXCEED!

Get up and get on with your life. Begin to believe in this awesome gift of life that you've been given. Believe in yourself. Believe in your potential. Embark on your dreams. And always know this. Even when you don't feel your own value. Even when life seemingly has you down. Even when everything seems to be upside down, inside out or anything other than 'good', YOU ARE STILL A MIRACLE! I can prove it!