{"id":3824,"date":"2012-09-18T08:05:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T13:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=3824"},"modified":"2012-09-18T16:09:39","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T21:09:39","slug":"september-23-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/september-23-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"September 23, 2012–Self-Esteem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributed by John Hougen, Melrose Park, PA<\/p>\n

Warm-up Question<\/h3>\n

Think of times when you felt great. What caused your positive feelings about yourself and your situation?<\/p>\n

Self-Esteem<\/h3>\n

As the boxer Muhammad Ali was rising through the ranks toward becoming heavyweight champion of the world, he was famous for strutting proudly, speaking about himself in laudatory poetry (long before hip hop), and proclaiming, \u201cI am the greatest.\u201d He did not have problems with low self-esteem. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Not many of us have the supreme self-confidence of Muhammad Ali. Most of us struggle with low self-esteem for one reason or another. There are under-achievers who think they are unable to succeed and sabotage their own efforts. There are over-achievers who are always disappointed because they fall short of perfection. There are those who buy into cultural stereotypes of inferiority (of race, social status, economic class). There are those who, in childhood, come to believe discouraging messages from critical parents, teachers, or peers. There are those who start out with confidence, but have it shattered by failures in the \u201creal world.\u201d There are pious Christians who believe that the Bible\u2019s emphases on sinfulness and \u201chumility and meekness\u201d mean that we should not love ourselves.<\/p>\n

In our culture, where so many struggle with low self-esteem, there are both unhealthy and healthy ways to come by a positive self-image. One example of an unhealthy way to improve one\u2019s self-image is through drugs and alcohol. Drugs and alcohol promise \u201cgood feelings,\u201d but their effects are short-lived and usually are followed by a crash into lower self-esteem. Another unhealthy road to high self-esteem is to seek fame at any cost. Cravings for \u201cfame\u201d and \u201ccelebrity\u201d can lead people to do stupid and self-destructive things just to get noticed by their peers or claim a few moments on TV.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are many healthy ways to foster positive self-esteem. Loving, affirming parents and teachers help. Close friends help. Setting and achieving realistic goals helps. Maintaining a balance between work and play helps. Attending to the health of body, mind, and soul helps. And, the Christian faith can help, too. God has affirmed our worth by creating us, watching over us (Psalm 139), by dwelling within us, by forgiving our sins (repeatedly) and giving us fresh starts (repeatedly), by becoming one of us (Jesus Christ \u201cbecame flesh and lived among us\u201d John 1: 14), by sending the Spirit to love and guide us, and by promising to welcome us into a heavenly home after our life is over. The more intimate our relationship with God, the more we sense that all these teachings apply to us, and the more our faith bolsters our self-esteem.<\/p>\n

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Discussion Questions<\/h3>\n