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Values are strong beliefs held by individuals, families and communities about important issues. They are what you believe are important to you, they form a core part of who you are and how you live your life.
You have so many choices to make in life – what you want to eat, what you want to wear, where you want to go, who you want to relate with, what you want to achieve in life etc. Values help you to know what is important and guide your decisions in making choices.
Read the story of Blessing below.
Blessing is the first child in a family of three children – two girls and a boy. Blessing loves her family and the way they spend their Sunday afternoons together. Blessing wants to be a neurosurgeon 👩⚕️ in the future and she believes that with determination, dedication and hard work, she can achieve her dreams. As a result of this, Blessing loves to read and acquire knowledge that will help her fulfil her dreams and her classmates in school often refer to her as the GOAT 🐐 because she always leads her class both in academic and extracurricular activities.
Blessing has a classmate called Linda who is celebrating her birthday soon. She invites Blessing over for the party that is scheduled to hold on a Sunday evening and it’s going to last for 6 hours. The party promises to be lots of fun as there will be big boys and lots of drinks 🥂 and finger foods 🍟. Blessing politely declines Linda’s invitation and tells her she always spends her Sunday afternoons with her family and her evenings to prepare for their forthcoming Senior School Certificate Examinations. Linda tries to convince her to relax and enjoy herself by having fun at the party but Blessing was sure that she wanted to spend time with her family and prepare for her exams which helped her to resist the pressure to do otherwise from Linda.
Blessing has a dream and she believes that education is important for her to achieve her dreams. Her firm belief in the importance of education has helped her to make her education a priority.
Having values to guide your decisions especially about your life and relationships is very important because;
It is also important to note that values can be personal e.g. you can have a strong belief in how you want to relate with other people in terms of equality, acceptance, tolerance, respect etc.
Values can also be strong beliefs held by families and communities, maybe you have heard someone say at any point in time “this is what we do in my family” or “this is how we do where I come from” – yes, that’s the family or community value speaking and these values are accepted as binding on members.
On a global level 🌍, there are basic values that have been generally accepted to guide human relations and are referred to as the Universal Declaration of Human rights.
Values may differ by Individuals, families and communities, this can be attributed to the various influences to the forming of those values. As a person, you must recognise and respect the other person’s values.
You must be able to clearly define your own values, beliefs and attitudes. Clarifying your values simply means identifying which of the options you have is important to you. This will help you when you have internal conflicts over what to do especially when it affects your sexuality and reproductive health issues. You should be assertive and learn how to speak up for yourself when the need calls for it. However, you must be able to do that with respect to other people’s values and acknowledging how your decisions affect them.
Remember that we have mentioned earlier that individual values and beliefs may differ from person to person as a result of the varying influences on value, it is also possible for your values to change as you grow older and have more experiences or relate with more people and better resources. However, if you find yourself in a situation where your values differ with another person’s, say your parents or guardians, it is important to find a way of resolving the differences using your negotiation skills. 🤝
Having values about your sexuality and reproductive health is very important to help you make quality decisions as it affects you, your body and your sexuality. These values guide your sexual behaviours and help you make sexual decisions that are consistent with those values. Values around sex and sexuality can be gotten from your family, community and the society at large. You must be careful to develop only positive sexual values and if you are confused, find a trusted adult around you to speak to. Some values you can build around your sexuality includes:
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