Confessions from Miss Popular

Ahhhh….the joys of being popular. Cool friends, cool parties, cool clothes, cool everything. The perks that come with being popular are endless. Or so I thought until I became Miss Popular.
I'll never forget the day I was voted most popular girl in the 6th grade. For the remainder of the year, my life revolved around maintaining my new image. Everyone wanted me to spend the night. The boys called me. I was invited to all the parties. The list goes on and on. I realized that popularity was based on beauty, talent, and cool clothes. I felt pressure to live up to other people's high expectations. I craved the approval of my friends.

As the years wore on, my popularity died down. It was only for a season. There was always someone else waiting in the wings to replace me. Ahhh….the perils of popularity.
Why is it important to so many girls to be popular? Having been Miss Popular, let me take a stab at answering that question. Many girls define their worth and value by what others think of them. It's kind of like a math equation.

Other people like me = increased self worth (I feel better about myself)

The only problem with this math equation is that our self worth should never be based on what other people think of us. Other people's opinions can change. Instead, our worth should be based on what God thinks of us. Fortunately, God thinks pretty highly of us. How do we know? Because He loved us enough to send His Son to die for us. I don't have any friends that can beat that. Better yet, His opinion of us will never change.

I've heard it said that God loves us so much that if He had a wallet, our picture would be in it. Being Miss Popular was not all it was cracked up to be, but being a child of the living God is everything I hoped it would be and more.

Written by: Vicki Courtney; copyright virtuousreality.com

Vicki Courtney is the Founder of virtuousreality.com and the author of the TeenVirtue series and His Girl Bible study for teen girls.