Thought of the Day 09.08.09

A friend of mine was recently telling me about a young girl that he’s been mentoring through the youth group at his church. One of her challenges is an extremely low self-esteem, in part because she was always told she won’t amount to anything.

My friend said that he’s trying to help her realize that she can do all sorts of things and to not believe what she’s been told about her abilities, at which point I wanted to caution him a bit. See, if she comes to view herself as valuable based on her skills and abilities, we’ve only given her a different assessment without changing the basic problem. This way of acquiring high self-esteem would actually be an opportunity lost rather than a success.

Instead, I encouraged him to focus on teaching her that she has infinite value precisely because she is made in the image of God and was thought worth saving by Jesus Christ. If skills fix your esteem issues, then skills will earn your adoration. But if God fixes them, He will earn your worship.