How can someone be worthy and full of potential and purpose....?

Question

If they've been abused and mistreated all their lives(not their choice)?

Answer 1

I recall a saying my father quoted from somewhere (I never knew its origin):
"Those who are cast into a furnace of affliction are either burnt to bitterness or refined to gold."

Over the decades, I have observed this to be SO true!
If you want a well-known example, look at the case of Nelson Mandela who was imprisoned and tortured for decades.
In classical fiction, we find inspiration from many of Charles Dickens' heroes or the main character in Charlotte Bronte's JANE EYRE, who started out their lives as deprived and abused kids, but went on to find a good life by the end of the book.

In real life, I can find no example as amazing as my own boyfriend/fiance. He was run out of an abusive home at the age of 13 (in 1947). Having never known a loving relationship, he ended up in a series of bad marriages early on in his life. Still, he knew in his own heart what life SHOULD be and kept struggling along in the pursuit of happiness. He had some remarkable adventures along the way - he was a professional gambler in Las Vegas at the age of 14, he later joined the Navy and became a decorated hero in the Korean War. In later years, he was owner and captain of his own ship in the merchant marine, and even became a photographer for National Geographic.
When he finally found the right woman, he was married to her for 27 years till she died in 1999.
I met him in early 2003, and was instantly awed by his beautiful personality. I have never met anyone as kind, loving and thoughtful of his fellow human beings in my whole life! (And, to me, THAT - a person's attitude towards and treatment of others - is the TRUE measure of their overall human worth!)

Abuse and mistreatment are horrible, but the obstacles in our lives are put there for the sake of what we will gain by overcoming them. Negative experience need not shape who you are.
I do not know exactly WHAT the nature of this abuse and mistreatment is that you are suffering, but I AM totally sure that, whatever your situation is and however awful it may be, there are those who have triumphed over much worse and there are also those who have caved in from a tiny fraction as bad.
I have heard it said that it's not what happens to you, but how you process it in your own mind and heart that will, in the end, determine who and what YOU, as a person, will be.

Answer 2

I don't think that matters. What does matter is the degree of the abuse and whether or not the person is in a place where they can now be trained to harness their full potential.

We are all worthy as we have been granted the gift of life and we define our purpose individually as we march on toward the inevitable. Eventually this gift will be taken from us and we will move onto the unknown.

Answer 3

By overcoming their past, and working towards their full potential.

The past shapes your future, but it doesn't lock it in. The person decides who and what they will do and be.