Revolutionary Leaders

Hope 4 Life: Self-Esteem
by Karissa Merritt
edited by Roger Nelmes

Suffering is part of life. It’s full of worry, frustration, disappointment, and sadness. Words sting. Hearts break. Some dreams don’t come true. Sometimes your to-do lists are too long. People judge you. Maybe you are just holding resentment. These things happen to everyone, everyday, every minute. All these things effect how we view ourselves It's our self-esteem.

Self-esteem is a commonly used term today. Its how you feel about yourself, how you view and respect yourself. Many struggle with this issue. Its reported that in the United States 2 to 3 Million teens self-mutilate, and 3.7% of men and women are anorexic or bulimic. They endure these inflictions of pain because in their eyes, they aren’t pretty enough, not good enough at a sport, they are too fat, to short, to tall, they get bad grades, or they think something was their fault.

Everyone at one time or another sat there and thought to themselves, “Why can’t I be like them? I just want to be taller or prettier, or just be someone else other than me." I know that I would feel sorry for myself and think that the world would just be better off without me. If that were true, God wouldn’t have put us here.

In his word, God tells us that we are made in the image of Him and that our bodies are a temple for his Holy Spirit. Our hope comes in knowing that we are His creation, unique and special. Why else would he want to live inside of us? Why else would he send His only Son to die for us?

Have you ever sat back and wondered why you feel bad about yourself? Could it be that what you’re doing with your body (the temple of the Holy Spirit) are actions directly spoken out against in the Bible? For some it might be eating disorders, striving to be perfect by disregarding the needs of the body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. For some it might be sexual sin. For others it might be cutting. Some gossip and spread rumors using words spoken with the mouth that God gave you. I’m guilty of this at times.

What about your friends? Many of us have very close friends who don’t share our same beliefs. God says that "bad company corrupts good character". Don’t cut all ties with them, rather bring them to church and keep them as friend’s - just not best friend like they were.

Self-esteem is the love of you. The Bible also says that you should not glorify yourself but glorify God with all you do. Sometimes we can become overly obsessed with ourselves and we forget about God and living a godly life. I challenge you is to think less of yourself and to use your actions to glorify God.

There is hope for our self-esteem. We were all made in the image of God, unique and beautiful, and we should honor him with all we do. He loves us and wants to be a part of our lives. We are the body of Christ so don’t inflict physical or mental pain on it. Don’t just forget about either. Do something to change it. Let God in and see how wonderful he created you to be.