I was rereading some of my older posts (as I do from time to time) and found one titled 'Healthy God-Esteem'. After reading it, I realized that I never explained what my phrase 'God-esteem' means!
Back in my days of teaching at a private Christian school, I read numerous articles about a student's self-esteem. They all had good things to say, but as I read these articles, I always found myself thinking, "But as Christians, it's not really about the 'self'. It's not about discovering 'who we are', making us feel good, being strong and confident in our own abilities." And so I coined the phrase 'God-esteem' for my own use.
And it isn't now, almost ten years later, that I'm writing about it! God-esteem means discovering who we are in God's sight, sinful people redeemed by Christ. It means knowing the person God designed us to be: leading, serving, kind, and strong. It means living in the boundaries of God's creation (meaning, His rules and guidelines.) It means relying on Him as our source of joy, comfort, love, strength, and guidance.
The world is teaching us to think about the 'self.' But if that is all one strives for, I don't think a person would ever really have a healthy self-esteem, because we can't fulfill ourselves. As individuals, teachers, parents, mentors, we need to remind ourselves that it's not about us. It's about God, the only One who can complete us and make us healthy.
To read more, here is the quick link to Healthy God-Esteem (part 1)
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