Scientifically Speaking...

(03/14/11)

Recently as I was reviewing my notes for a test in psychology, I came across the concept of “self-esteem”.  Psychologically speaking, “the term self-esteem is used to describe a person’s overall sense of self-worth or personal value.” (Cherry 2011, About.com)   Now, all of us want to feel good about ourselves, but how do we go about doing this without becoming egomaniacs?  As I continued to read I discovered the answer to this mental quandary under the heading, “three factors to raise a child’s self esteem”; and I found myself marveling once again at the inner workings of God.  And though the scientific community may say that these three factors presented themselves through years of careful observation of the human psyche; my hypothesis states that the only thing we ever needed to observe to understand this principle is the Bible.  Now let’s see if I can prove it…  Let’s begin with factor number one:

·         Unconditional love/positive regard

Who loves us more than God?  Nobody!!  John 15:13 states: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (NIV)  God proved His love for us when He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16, NIV)  Alright, scientifically we can say that factor number one is firmly represented; so let’s move on to factor number two:

·         Firm behavioral standards

God gave us His standards when He gave us the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and then He summed them up by stating, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, NIV)  He gave us the instructions we need to live our lives in love.  It’s up to us to follow them.  Ok, we have enough evidence to decisively support factor number two.  Just one more to go… number three: 

·         Freedom of choice

We all have free will.  God gave us that freedom from the beginning because he knew the true test of our love for Him was to choose Him to be our Father just as He chooses us to be His children. “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.  In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will…” (Ephesians 1:4-5, NIV)  It seems that factor number three has been proven as well.

God gave us His unconditional love to rely on when the world gets cold, His standards to follow when the world gets confusing, and the freedom to come to Him when our needs are so far beyond what we can handle.  These things help us to not only know who we are, but whose we are. (Romans 14:7)  Our self-esteem, or evaluation of ourselves, must come from God in order for us to be happy and content with ourselves as well as with others.  We must acknowledge His love, and make the choice to follow Him in all we do.  We all know the journey can be rough at times, but accepting and loving ourselves along the way makes life a little easier to handle.