Tunde Olawuwo

Dallas, Texas, US — Christian Science has taught me that I don’t have to buy into traditional views about worth—mine, or anyone else’s. For example, I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where many who’d left home to make their way in the US were welcomed back as heroes. It was easy to get caught up in that hero worship. Sometimes I did. I felt unworthy and inadequate next to these cultured, modern people.

But my parents, and the teachers I’d had in the Christian Science Sunday School, had taught me something very different. They’d taught me that my worth comes from being made in God’s image, from being the reflection of God. I’d learned that my very being attests to the goodness of God. That everyone’s does.

It can seem almost natural to buy into comparisons. To judge our worth based on the accomplishments—or failings—of those around us. That’s what the world teaches us to do. And yet, I’ve seen over and over in my own life that a human definition of worth is never an accurate measurement of any of us. I know now that what I’ve learned in Christian Science is true. No human circumstances can determine my worth. Only God does that. Only God can do that.