“Push yourself to be someone and then someday you will be someone.”
-Super Bowl Kia Commercial

The annual Super Bowl game gives companies, who are willing to spend the big bucks, an opportunity to promote their businesses to millions of viewers. In recent years, these creative and sometimes hilarious ads come with a message. This year, the Kia automobile company promoted an ad with a blatant message that you are a no one until you work hard enough to be someone. As a therapist, this message hurt my heart. Every week, I sit with many clients who struggle with anxiety and depression. Many wrestle with the thoughts that they can never measure up and that they have to achieve in order to be accepted. They live with a false sense that the anxiety and depression will go away once they land that job, finish the degree, make more money, be the best parent, stop making mistakes, and so forth. 

The true message that I wish I had the “big bucks” to advertise is that every person is important just because they are human and no amount of striving can ever make your life matter more. You matter because you are alive. You matter because you belong. You matter because you are made in the image of a loving God.