In His Image - Part 1

We've all heard that before - we were created in God's image.  That was something that used to go in one ear and out the other.  I really didn't know what it meant.

But, lets start from the beginning.  I used to have low self esteem - not really sure why - I had a great childhood and don't have any particularly strange scars or missing limbs or learning disabilities.  Nothing major except a bit of rejection from a friend or two and a boyfriend.  I guess it's just one of those things.  Anyway, in learning more and more about God, I'm learning that low self esteem isn't cool.  In fact, it's kind of impossible to have if you really understand God.  He loves us so much.  Way, way, way, so, so much.  It's totally crazy.  He gave His perfect, blameless, precious Son to DIE for us.  Okay, there is no one on the planet I love enough to send my daughter to die for.  Just have to let you know that.  But God wouldn't have done that for someone He didn't care about.  He  wouldn't have done that for someone He thought wasn't worth it.  Not to mention He did it so we can spend eternity WITH Him!  The more I learned these things, the more I thought having low self esteem was kind of an insult to God.  I was saying that all He did for me was stupid and not worth it.  Whoa!  Nothing could be further from the truth.


Also, all that time I spent analyzing my imperfections, I was full of a sin called pride.  Whether I'm saying I'm so great, or saying I'm not great, I'm focused completely on myself and that's prideful.


So, my first step was accepting those things, and thinking about them and praying about them often.  Whether I necessarily felt them or agreed with them didn't matter so much at step one.


Side note:  a woman with low self esteem needs to also realize how this will impact her daughter.  More than she'll know.  I recognize that responsibility and take it very seriously.


More to come on my next post.  What do you think about what I've said so far?  Do you agree?  Have you struggled with low self esteem?

Comments

Kattrina said…
I think low self esteem is a lot more complicated than that. And I think it's a lot harder to overcome then just remembering that you were made in God's image or that Jesus died for you or that you're a parent now and shouldn't have low self-esteem. I think overcoming low self-esteem is a huge process and takes a lot hard work. It's similar to depression - you can't just tell a depressed person to be happy. If it were that easy, they'd be happy. It is related to so many other factors. A lot of youth suffer from low self-esteem and it comes from how they are treated at school, the media, how they compare themselves with others (and not necessarily because of pride but because of self worth and how they feel they measure up to friend's/parent's/teacher's standards, etc.). I think it's very, very important to try and teach children to be self-confident and believe in themselves, but it's amazing how hard that can be. When we talk about self-esteem and being confident in the golf classed I teach the girls say some sad stuff (and they are 7-11 years old). They talk about how they are made fun of because of their teeth, how they feel stupid when they get an answer wrong, how they are scared that they aren't as smart as their parents want them to be, how they feel like they are horrible golfers, etc. They are so hard on themselves and feel like they need to be perfect at everything and someone taught them that. And it's hard to undo years of believing that you aren't good enough, even if Jesus think you're good enough. If that makes sense.
April 4, 2012 at 8:41 AM
jessicaday said…
I hear what you're saying and think "low self-esteem" are not the words I meant to use. What does it mean when I have no reason for feel bad for myself other than comparing myself to what the media thinks I should be? Like, superficial stuff that's easy to get over?
April 4, 2012 at 3:50 PM
Kattrina said…
Would we call that envy?
April 5, 2012 at 7:47 AM
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