What are you worth?

Lately I've been thinking quite a bit about worth/value. How does something get assigned value? Who gets to decide value? I know that our perceived value or worth of something is based upon the laws of supply and demand. For example, if something is in high demand but low supply, the object's worth/value increases. The greater the imbalance between supply and demand, the higher the perceived value. Things can also have a high value based on our emotional attachment to them. Even things with a small monetary value can be our greatest treasures because of the emotions we attach to them. In fact, some of the things that have the highest value to me are letters, pictures and mementos. These things have little if any monetary value, but besides my dog, they are the things I would grab first if my house was on fire because of the relationships, emotions and feelings they represent.
But what about people? How do we place a value on a person? Why do we value some people more than others?  In this book called Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (a book I HIGHLY recommend btw), there is this one section where the author talks about his own realization of how the world thinks of people in economic terms... he talks about how human beings use terms such as "investing in relationships, relationships that can be bankrupt" etc. He then goes on to talk about how human beings generally place a higher value on those people/those relationships where we feel we are getting something in return. He talks about how the commandment to love others as we love ourselves is repeated so often in the Bible because we learn our worth/unworth from other people.
This concept of worth is something that I have struggled with all of my life. Growing up, I had several experiences where I learned that I was not worth very much. While I now know that those hurtful words were said out of frustration and anger and not necessarily the truth, it is those hurtful words that stick with me more than anything- The old adage that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is the furthest thing from the truth, at least in my experience! Despite all the evidence to the contrary, and all the other examples I have of people validating and honoring me- those examples of people seeing my worth, I still have internalized the idea that somehow I'm not worth very much. Why is it that the negative reviews are the ones we hold on to, even when the positive ones out number the bad 100 to 1?
 I think that is partly why I am an extreme people pleaser. I go out of my way to prove my worth/value to others by doing things for them or offering to help or whatever they need. I am the "yes" girl because I don't want anyone to think that I am without value.  Of course, I think that my people pleasing tendencies are also just a part of who I am, but  I think part of that is certainly tied to feeling valuable/wanted/needed.
Having grown up in the church, with several relatives who are Lutheran pastors, I know very well all the verses like Ephesians 2:8-10 " For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  I see my own sinful nature and I recognize that the above verses must be true in regards to my salvation- if it were up to my own works, nothing could measure up and I wouldn't even have a hope of salvation.  But I have a really hard time applying these verses to my personal relationship with God. I have a hard time understanding why He would value me. Again- I know all the scripture by heart about how God made us and knows us intimately and therefore values us, but the believing part is more difficult. This is one reason why I find it difficult to pray for myself. When I pray for others, I have no difficulty praying with boldness and specificity. I fully believe that God will grant the things that I ask- in fact so many times I have seen this to be true. But I have a really hard time praying for myself.  In His mercy, He has been revealing these false beliefs to me, through a Bible study about the life of King David, the Lord has been showing to me that He wants me to cry out to Him, to ask things of Him, and to seek Him first, and then he will grant the desires of my heart. I still haven't prayed with boldness and specificity for the deepest desire of my heart, but I'm learning to start with the little things, in hopes that as I learn this discipline that I might be able to trust everything to Him- in the mean time. I'm grateful that He is patient and that I have awesome friends who are willing to pray for me when I can't pray for myself.