As you read this first sentence, does your reality allow you to believe you are absolutely marvelous, magnificent, spectacular, gorgeous, fabulous and worthy of all good? If you agree then you know you are priceless. Sadly however, many women do not believe they are any of these things.

I believe every one of you reading this are all of the above, just as I know all these qualities define me. You see, it has nothing to do with whether or not you have a beautiful face (according to what society claims), whether or not your body is a perfect size 4, whether or not you win anything, or whether or not you achieve your goals. I came to believe this after many challenging experiences gave me a wake-up call. I decided to step out of my old story so that I could claim my birthright of power. You can too!

Often a woman spends her life bending to the whims of everyone else. If she doesn’t perform well she feels lesser, and heaven forbid if she fails to achieve her goals, for then she’d feel lesser since someone else was obviously “more” by achieving. If this situation occurs again and again, a woman may reach the point of total disbelief in her merit, perceiving herself a failure and thus of little value. This belief often sneaks in through subtle doors that disarm her self-worth.

An empowered woman is one who knows her worth, not based on outer accomplishments, but on who she is. She sees herself as valuable and priceless. She may stumble at times and find she must brush off her knees as she pulls herself up, but she always stands again to continue in her empowerment.

So how do I know this truth about each one of you? I don’t even know you. It’s really quite simple, so simple it’s often overlooked. Regardless of different religious beliefs, most individuals believe there is a Creator of the universe. This Creator made each one of us from the same space of love, and although we are each a one-of-a-kind unique design, we all came from the same place: love. This source of love is perfect, so we can only be MAGNIFICENT designs!

This is also where we can plug into our power, from our Creator. If you want to hear the music you must first plug in your radio. Turning the dial to hear the music is futile without the connection to the power source. We are all energetic beings who only need to plug into our Source for the connection to unlimited power.

Since we are energetic beings, everything we feel inside is projected outward to all with whom we come in contact. If we feel lesser inside, people feel that vibration coming from within us and respond accordingly. Negative energy attracts more negative energy just as positive energy attracts more positive energy. As soon as an individual acts from a place of feeling unworthy, that individual attracts more experiences that perpetuate like energy vibrations.

Once I understood this concept I slowly shifted into a new realization. I understood I was already priceless and didn’t have to do anything to prove that. It is my birthright as a divine being of creation to accept this into my knowingness. As I accepted it into a new belief for me, my entire life shifted into one of happiness, abundance, inner joy and a serenity I had not known before. As I began to radiate a vibration from love instead of negative emotional responses, and as I understood that nothing in my external world could have power over me unless I allowed it to, I became free to be me. In that place I realized the exhilarating and uplifting knowledge of my magnificence.

Your magnificence is inherited from the Designer of the universe. It is yours for eternity and all you must do is accept it. There are no strings attached nor any rules or regulations. It’s free for the taking just as air is free for us to breathe in life. When we take a breath of air we aren’t taking anything away from anyone else for there is more than enough for everyone. The same is true with being priceless. Recognizing magnificence in ourselves does not take any magnificence away from another being for it is inborn within each individual who is alive on this planet.

Perhaps you have the gift of external beauty or perhaps you’ve been an achiever in a big way. This is temporary and will soon fade away. The only thing that is real and lasting is your internal beauty. So even if you’re feeling at the top of the world right now or if you’re still attempting to climb up there, I ask you to look deep within your being and see what you really believe about yourself. The beauty of it all is that you’re already beautiful, magnificent, spectacular, fabulous, talented and marvelous, and do not need to climb up anywhere to obtain it.

In recent years as I accepted that I am priceless, I realized the importance of getting this message to every woman who would listen. My life’s work is to share this belief so that others may also accept it into their knowingness, and I do this through writing, speaking and coaching. I decided to provide a visual by creating a gold charm that can be worn on a chain as a daily reminder of how priceless you are. It is available through my website: www.drcarolynporter.com. Every time I look at mine I smile and reaffirm how priceless I really am. You can too!

As I close I want to share with you a poem I wrote that sums up the entire thought of what I’ve shared here and also found in one of my books, “The Realness of a Woman.” Enjoy!

A Woman of Worth

A woman of worth, her riches beyond earthly treasures,

a heart spun with gold, reaches in touching your soul;

a flower so rare, her beauty unfolds over time.

Adorned with truth and honor,

undaunted by the wiles of worldly men,

she builds on today, fully present in the now,

for futures can change in a moment.

She makes her own rules

not bound to limits placed by others:

she sees the rainbow through the storm,

standing in her own light,

needing no one to brighten the path,

she does not betray herself for anyone.

A woman of worth embraces life’s passion,

speaks gently from divine wisdom,

giving credence to the power within.

Though she may stumble,

quickly she rises with the grace of nobility,

Her heartspace open, loving and compassionate

she feeds her own soul,

not needing praise from anyone else,

but accepting it when it is given.

Joy rises in her as her spirit soars

to enlightened spheres beyond,

she touches your heart, reaches into your soul,

this woman is a gift to the world.

A woman of worth, loving herself,

shares love with those who cross her path, for a moment, a passing space, or a lifetime. She is priceless!

…Carolyn Porter ©2003

Written by Carolyn Porter, D. Div., who is an inspirational and motivational speaker, author, trainer and wholeness coach. To contact Carolyn or for more information visit www.drcarolynporter.com.

Carolyn Porter, D. Div., is an Inspritational Speaker, Author of multiple books and audios, Trainer, Spriitual Wholeness Coach, Energy Facilitator, and Co-owner of a health store, whose passion is to help individuals understand their power so that they can move through their self-imposed limitations and become more.

Everyone’s mind needs a little downtime. We all need time to focus on one task, instead of multi-tasking all day and night. In fact, your mind doesn’t take a complete rest when you sleep. Your mind moves from dream to dream for about two hours per night.

Your mind needs rest and a vacation. Have you ever noticed that when you take a vacation, you come back with fresh ideas, a better attitude, and establish clear priorities? This is due to getting some time to relax and reflect on your life. The time off allows you to think clearly.

Our problem stems from being so busy that we lose touch with our inner self. We fill our time with too many activities to realistically accomplish them. Companies do this to their employees, but we voluntarily do it to ourselves. You have the ability to take control of your own life, and the solution is as simple as daily meditation sessions.

The answers to our problems are within ourselves, but many of us don’t want to look that deep, for fear of what we might learn about ourselves. It is always easier to blame outside forces for our problems. However, closing down outside distractions and listening to our inner voice is natural medicine.

Who knows? You could actually find yourself and your identity. This could lead you to make changes and put ideas into action. All of this progress could happen as a result of you making a “meditation appointment” with yourself. It only takes 20 to 30 minutes a day for a single meditation session.

There has never been a better time to meditate than right now. People have so much “going on,” these days; the only time they stop is when they are sick. The problem is how busy will people be in 20 years from now? Now you see why having downtime is so important.

Information about meditation techniques is widely available in books, DVD’s, and CD’s. You don’t have to join a monastery, and live according to a strict moral code, with multitudes of rules, but you do need the self-discipline to continue a daily practice.

Strangely - self-discipline, alone, will keep the masses away from this ancient practice, which has survived a battery of tests and modern scrutiny. This is amazing when you think about the rewards of self-mastery, contentment, and mindfulness, which result from daily meditation practice.

Paul Jerard is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in North Providence, RI. He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. He is a master instructor of martial arts, with multiple Black Belts, four martial arts teaching credentials, and was recently inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness to children, adults, and seniors in the greater Providence area. Recently he wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students, who may be considering a new career as a Yoga teacher. http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

In God’s Word, there is a big difference between being a
conqueror and being victorious. You may ask, don’t they
both bring about the same results? And what God wants us
to know is that no, they don’t. If you conquer something, that
means you are giving yourself all the credit for the defeat,
and therefore, you will forever be fighting against this thing. It
will always be around somewhere, to haunt you. This is not
victory in the least. God gives the victory when we step aside
and let Him do His thing His way. He tells us that we don’t
own our battles, they are His and He will take care of them,
as long as we give Him permission.

When God gives us the victory, that means it’s done,
finished, never to be brought up again. It’s “outa here!” Why
do you think God says, “Vengeance is Mine!” He knows if we
take matters into our own hands, we won’t do a complete
and thorough job of it. We may conquer something
temporarily, but victory is not ours.

It’s a common thing for people to seek vengeance on
others. It gives temporary satisfaction to take matters into
your own hands and get revenge. We like to call it, “sweet
revenge”. But it’s not sweet in the least. In fact, it gets putrid
after awhile. Retaliation is a typical human response when
we feel we’ve been wronged. Someone has to pay. But, if
God said it was His job, why then don’t we let Him do His
job? Who do we think we are to play god and make
someone suffer as we suffer? This fulfills the lust of the
flesh, and grieves the spirit. Our type of vengeance is short
lived. We become overtaken with guilt and regret and have
created a negative situation that may never be healed. This
is not what God wants. If He has free reign to deal with our
problems, we can rest assured that we will be more than
conquerors, we will be victorious. When God settles a
problem, it will disappear and we will be free to rejoice.

God gives us this perfect example in His Word. We tend to
miss the whole point of His Word if we don’t ask Him to
reveal it to us. We are not wise in our own eyes and can’t
expect to just pick up on the deeper meanings that lay
beneath the words that are written in black and white. God’s
examples are for our own good. We really need to pay
attention to them and put them into action.

This example is given in 1 Sam. 25. The story unfolds when
David had supplied for Nabal’s men, giving them
whatever they needed out of compassion. He had expected
the favor to be returned to him by Nabal himself. Nabal was
a very rich man and very easily could’ve returned the
compassion on David and his men. But because he had a
foolish and wicked heart, which is what “Nabal” means, he
refused David’s request. We all know someone with a
wicked and foolish heart, but we don’t have the right to get
even with them.

This led David to wanting to seek revenge on Nabal’s life.
We tend to over step our bounds like this when someone
makes us mad. We wish to do them harm. At that moment,
we feel that someone else’s suffering will bring us great
satisfaction. All we have on our minds is, “I guess I showed
them.” But, this is exactly what God doesn’t want us to do.
This will lead to greater problems afterward. It’s only our
near sightedness that we don’t look that far into the future.
Thank God, He does and can stop us from making a foolish
mistake that could last a lifetime.

Nabal had a very wise wife named Abigail. Her husband’s
men reported to her what David had done for them.

“So know this and consider what you will do, for evil is
determined against our master and all his house. For he is
such a wicked man that one cannot speak to him.” 1 Sam.
25:17 (Amplified)

David thought it was his right to bring death upon Nabal
because he was so wicked. We experience all kinds of
relationships like that today. We judge others by what we
think of them instead of letting God handle the situation.

When Abigail had heard this, she hurriedly gathered enough
provisions for David and his men and met him half way and
there she pleaded for her husband’s life that David should
not take matters into his own hands. She made David
realize that he was not an evil man that he should do this act
of evil out of revenge.

“Forgive, I pray you, the trespass of your handmaid, for the
Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my
lord is fighting the Lord’s battles, and evil has not been
found in you all your days.” 1 Sam. 25:28 (Amplified)

She goes on in the next verse to tell David that God will
vindicate his battles against his enemies. In verse 31,
Abigail explains to David that he will be spared the
staggering grief of this, he will not have any pangs of guilt
because of his conscience. It’s the guilt we feel afterwards
that is far worse as a result of our selfish pride. So, here,
Abigail is the peacemaker and makes David realize that this
is the Lord’s battle to do with as He wishes only because
David would not be able to do a complete job of it for
himself. That’s the way it is for us today when we plot
someone else’s demise. It will all come back on us in a
bigger way, and we have conquered nothing. We certainly
will not get the victory.

Abigail is also an example of people in relationships that
one may serve God and the other one doesn’t. We can not
allow the weaker link to bring us down to their level. We
must remain faithful and strong in our convictions that God
will settle the matter His way.

When Abigail told Nabal what had happened he got so
upset that he became paralyzed and helpless. After 10 days
God smote him and he died. (1 Sam. 25:37)

This left David praising God for handling the situation His
way, the right way and kept David from doing evil. God had
repaid the wickedness of Nabal and He will do the same for
those who oppose us if they mean to do us harm. Just step
back and let God do what God does best!

This story reflects the true act of love and compassion
through Jesus Christ in our lives. Jesus was not out to get
revenge on those who beat Him, spit on Him, blasphemed
Him, hung Him on a cross and jeered at Him. It was His
final words that they be forgiven. If we are in Christ and
Christ is in us, then shouldn’t we forgive those who hurt us
and ask God to make us victorious so that He will get all the
glory? What are we showing others when we act out in
revenge? Not a thing, and this is not why Christ came to give
up His life for us.

The next time you are faced with a situation that makes you
want revenge, step away from it, and give it to God so that
you will be kept from doing evil. He will make you more than
a conqueror, He will make you victorious!

Remember, God has chosen us for His own elect and we
are sanctified and made righteous in His image. That
means we have an awesome responsibilty to keep up that
image. We are no longer like those in the world, we are His
special saints and just don’t need to stoop to anyone’s level.
Have compassion on those who persecute you, pray for
them and ask God to bless them. This only promotes you in
His kingdom and He will vindicate you without guilt. You are
free! This is being able to step away from what the devil
wants you to do. It’s victorious to know you are no longer
under the enemy’s thumb!

True freedom is not in having your own way, but in yielding
to God’s way!

Vivian Gordon writes inspirational and spiritual articles
in which to help strengthen the Believer’s walk in Christ.
They are often taken from today’s point of view and
used in conjunction with what God says about certain
situations and how we are to handle them. There is
always an answer for every problem. These articles are
not all about asking God “why?” but in finding the
answers.