When I was a teenager, my father was pretty well known in-and-around Salisbury, North Carolina, where we lived. He was the Salisbury District Lay Leader in the United Methodist Church for years, President of the local
Recreation Center, and manager of a big company there.
As a teenager, I would meet people or be introduced, “This is Bruce Jones,” and they would politely shake my hand. Then someone would say, “This is Walt Jones’ son.” And people would go, “Oh, you’re Walt Jones’ son!” and they would re-shake my hand. The first handshake was like the “little people handshake.” But once they learned that I was related to someone they valued, they would give me a more enthusiastic handshake — because all of a sudden, I was somehow more important.
You know what will change the way you relate to anyone and everyone you meet? It’s to remember that every person, everybody, everyone you lay your eyes on is someone of sacred worth. Every person is of eternal value in the eyes of God. If you’ve ever been kicked around or bumped around by the church, do you know why? It’s because some Christians lost sight of this. They 
forgot to view you through the lens that Christians are called to view everybody that crosses our path.
If we are really who God called us to be, we would remember, every day of our life: everybody we lay eyes on is someone for whom Christ died. Every single person is of immeasurable value to God — and consequently, there should be immeasurable value ascribed to them by us, too. Every human being you see today, and everyday, is a person of sacred worth.
