News: Poor self-esteem

Yeah, that is what I said. </font>[/QUOTE]And exactly why would you say that?

 

Satan must be jumping up and down with glee at the moment.

How about sticking to the topic rather than insults for a change?

 

Our position in God's sight:

Valuable enough to send His Son to take our sins on himself and become the sacrificial Lamb, completely unable to redeem ourselves, and utterly useless without the power of God.

 

Our position in God's sight:

Created in His image and likeness.
Created as a "very good" creation.
Made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and honor.
Look at the birds of the air: Are we not worth more than they.
We are the salt of the earth.
We are the light of the world.

 

For those that slam self-esteem and think nobody should have any, here's a job for you.
Get out a pen and a piece of paper.
Write a letter to your children describing them, and saying why you love them.
Would does it say?
Would you ever tell them what you wrote or would you be in danger of promoting self-esteem if you did?
Gina

 

I am just glad that sarcasm is easily recognized on this board.

 

I have never said that no one should have any. I do believe that one does not "esteem himself more than he should".

Self-esteem is not the same as self-worth. God has chosen to give worth to humanity and commanded that we do the same (which is why abortion is evil and capital punishment is biblical - but that is another thread).

As far as kids go, I have two of them, Daniel and David, I hope I point them to a God-centered life and not a man or self-centered life.

Btw, God did not send Christ to die because of any worth that we had to offer. Christ's coming was all of grace. If it is because of our worth, it is no longer grace.

 

I see, but now I'm confused.
Will you please explain the difference between a sense of worth and esteem? I've been looking at both as the same thing.
Gina

 

Very true. We have worth because God has created us, loved us and redeemed us. A true sense of self-worth and self-esteem is based on what God has done.

For those who may lean toward the idea that we should not esteem ourselves or consider ourselves as worth having worth, remember that our Lord gave us a commandment to "love our neighbors as we love ourselves".

 

'Worth' is the value or quality of something. 'Esteem' is the perception of worth which may not be the same as reality. What I object to in the modern concept of "self-esteem" is that the "worth" requirement is negated.

For instance, a few years back there was a fairly short-lived push for outcome based education. One criticism was that a child's esteem for himself was not to be threatened by grading the "worth" of his work. It was more important to feel good about one's self than to do something worth feeling good about.

Another criticism was that "low self-esteem" is often just another way to excuse self-pity (an extreme form of self love). Someone once told me that a girl very close to me suffered from low self-esteem. Knowing the girl well, I recognized that what this well meaning person identified as low self-esteem was mostly a distaste for academic standards and work. No matter how low the bar was lowered, she objected to the work as being "too hard." She demanded approval for the 50% she did right while descending into a funk when corrected on the 50% she did wrong. The idea that 50% was not good enough caused her to become indignant.

The "self-esteem" thing has become virtually synonomous with "lower the standard to where I am so I can feel good about myself." Indicative of our society, people want the rewards without the effort.

If we have a proper attitude toward God, we will have a proper sense of our worth and will not esteem ourselves above what we ought.

 

I usually do as well because they’re so closely related…

Our sense of self-esteem should come from our sense of worth.

Our worth comes from recognizing the actions and loving attitude of our Creator and Redeemer toward us.

“Self”-esteem is recognizing this worth (value) and living as people of value to God.


Of course people gets these things out of balance all the time but it is foolish to throw out the biblical concept because people often misinterpret it.

 

The fruit of the Spirit aren't produced by those with an ungodly view of self, be it too much or too little. Self control is one of the results of having Godly self esteem.

 

3 page limit is here, so this thread will close around 3am est, if anyone's still awake around then.
Gina