Overlooked and Unconsidered

Blessed are you when people overlook you and constantly forget to consider you. 

That’s not in the Sermon on the Mount, but perhaps it should be. Perhaps if God wrote a Sermon on the Mount particularly addressed to me, that would be in there. This is something I feel I’ve always experienced and am really getting to the point where enough is enough. I’m tired of being overlooked and unconsidered. The problem is, I don’t know what to do about it. I’m not a particularly loud or forceful person (unless I’m laughing), which is perhaps why it’s sometimes so easy for people to forget about me or what I contribute or add value to. I'm mostly a background kind of person, and that’s ok with me so far as not receiving public recognition for what I do. I don’t need that. But when it comes to people remembering that I do actually contribute significant things to what we're doing together and should be considered in decisions that are made, I feel like they often don’t until I say something. But why is that? 

In my pity party as I was processing feeling overlooked and unconsidered recently, my mind did actually turn to Isaiah 53. It says that ‘we esteemed Him not.’ The NLT says ‘We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way…we did not care.’ But I know this passage and that’s not all it says we did or that He endured. Suffice it to say, my pity party was cut short. That does not mean, however, that my feelings were not valid. They were. It simply means, He endured more, therefore I could (and can!) endure this. 

So, what do I do about this? I don't know. The only practical advice I can give myself right now is to use it, to take the realisation that I don’t like how I feel when others overlook me or don’t consider me when they make decisions and do my best to intentionally consider and appreciate those around me.

Any thoughts?