Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what makes those people important to you? I'm stabbing in the dark but I'd wager for most of the males out there the very important people in their life are people they respect. And (further into the dark) for most of the females reading this the important people in your life are people you love.
But why you do respect them, why do you love them? At some level, it has to do with them. The people I respect in my life are people of integrity. They keep their word. The people I love are people of compassion. they care for others. I respect self control, I love insightfulness.
So initially the reason for importance lies with the other party. Or does it? Each person is who they are. They don't change just because they meet some stranger on the street. They don't change just because they make a new acquaintance. We are who we are regardless of who we meet. Love may change us, may make us better but that's after we've already met and decided to love the other person.
So there has to be something more, something deeper. We decide who we view as important based on something more substantial than first impressions. We get to know them, we see their honesty, their wit, their humor, their wisdom. We see how they respond to difficulty, what they value in life, the battles they fight. And then we decide if they are important to us, if they are worthy of love and respect.
That. Right there! Did you see it? We decide. Other people aren't making choices and values up to impress us. (If they are, that's a good sign to leave. Rapidly). We choose who is important to us and who isn't. It's up to us. Yes, we choose based on who they are but it's our choice, our decision.
So what does that mean? After all, knowledge is rather meaningless unless it has application (including but not limited to Trivial Pursuit). That means that we need to let others value us even if we don't see why they do. That means that we need to be humble enough to accept gifts as a means of them expressing how important we are in their lives. That means that we need to value people regardless of whether or not they agree, that we need to express to others their importance to us. Sometimes we all just need to know that we're loved and cherished to the point of letters, extravagant gifts, and time well invested together.
Kinda gives new meaning to God valuing us too, huh?