Why Your Worth Has Nothing to Do With Your Relationship Status

By Mary R. Dittman, M.B.A.

For years, I believed there was something wrong with me.

I wouldn't have said it exactly that way, but that's what I believed.

I've always wanted marriage and a family. Not because I felt pressured by society, and not because I grew up in a small Southern town where most people marry young. I wanted those things because I genuinely desired them for myself.

The problem was that they never happened.

The longer I remained single, the more I began to wonder if my singleness meant something about me.

Maybe I wasn't attractive enough.

Maybe I wasn't lovable enough.

Maybe I wasn't good enough.

And every year that passed seemed to reinforce the belief.

If there wasn't something wrong with me, why was I still single?

Today, I don't believe that anymore.

Today, I believe my worth has absolutely nothing to do with my marital status.

Getting to that place wasn't easy, but it changed my life.

Th...