So many of the subjects I discuss in my books – issues of respect, listening to your parents and other authority figures, and not merely doing what everyone else is doing – flow from a healthy sense of self-esteem. Building self-esteem is essential, not just in our kids, but in ourselves.
If there were only one thing I could leave you with, it would be this…
You Were Created By God and He Cares
It would be the understanding that you were created by God. Before you were ever born, God knew who you would be. Your abilities, interests, and passions are combined within you in a way that has never been seen before. You are unique, and that is good. That’s the way God intended it to be.
God doesn’t sleep, and He cares for you. As Jesus told the crowd that assembled when He gave what is known as the Sermon on the Mount, God takes care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.
And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?
God knows your needs and your desires before you can even ask. He cares about you in your day-to-day living, in your excitement, and in your grief, in your ups and in your downs.
Think About This
Now stop and think about that for a minute. I don’t know what you’ve experienced in your life or how those experiences have made you feel about yourself, but after reading those words-that God cares about you in every circumstance-do you think about yourself differently? I believe that God cares about all of us – He cares about me and about you.
The Next Generation
I am concerned about kids who never come to believe that about themselves, kids who see themselves as cosmic accidents and haphazard, random events. If life is seen as accidental, then wasting my life, or taking someone else’s, may not be that big of a deal. Life is precious and should be viewed as such. If a child feels that no one really cares about him, what do you think he begins to feel about himself? Our world has already gone too far in that direction.
Life is precious and should be viewed as such. You were created by God.
Where do you find your self-esteem?
Huddle up with your kids and ask, “What three words would you use to describe yourself?”