What are you worth?

Think a minute…A famous American football coach was interviewed on television. The coach’s son was a star player on his team. In the interview this father-coach was asked how he felt about his son’s success as a football player. His answer surprised millions of people watching the TV program. He said: “I’m pleased that my son is a fine athlete. But I’d be just as proud of him if he’d never even played football.”

It made me think of a story I read about a boy whose father died just a few months before he was born. His mother was very hard and unkind to him. Plus, her job kept her away from home most of the time, so she gave her little boy almost no attention, love or training. As a result, he had no self-confidence or even any friends, so he was alone most of the time.

When he was 13 years old, a school counselor said this boy never knew what it was like to be loved, or feel safe and protected by his mother. Even though he was very smart and intelligent, he failed in school and dropped out when he was 16. So he joined the Marines, hoping it would make him a real man. But the other soldiers made fun of him and put him down. Naturally, he fought back and resisted authority, so he was soon kicked out of the Marines.

There he was, in his early 20’s with no friends or family. He later married, but in a short time even his wife left him. It was clear to this young man that no one in the world wanted him. So one day he took a gun with him to his job. From a window on the third floor of his work building, on November 22, 1963, this lonely, rejected man named Lee Harvey Oswald, shot and killed the American President John F. Kennedy. In shooting that gun, Lee Harvey Oswald used the only skill he’d learned in his lifetime of pain and unhappiness.

But what’s even sadder is there are millions of people like Oswald. They’ve been abused and mistreated, so they’re deeply unhappy and hurting. They’ve not been given love, kindness or respect, not even by their own family. But today, if you’ll give all your pain and anger to God, He can start healing your heart and changing your life. Only your Maker can show you how important you are and what you’re really worth. He can even use your past pain to make you a stronger, better person. Why not ask Him to start today? Just Think a Minute…

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