Christian Perspectives on Self-Esteem - Coursework Example

Christian perspective on self esteem Christian perspective on self esteem Introduction A persons self esteem is how the individual views their self. According to Christians, there are three views of an individual; God’s view, the view of others and the view of the individual (Jackson, 2014). God does not look at the outside of an individual, but He looks at the heart and deeds of the person. Others on the other hand may vary their perspective of the individual from the outside look to the acts of the person. This may lead to misjudgment of the individual in most cases giving a wrong impression of the person for example the people viewed Jesus like any other ordinary man, a carpenters son and did not believe that He was the messiah that was to come so that even after the death of Jesus some people are still waiting for the coming of the messiah. The third view, the view that a person has about their self determine their self esteem. A person with a low opinion about himself is bound to have a low self esteem that reflects in his relation with others in the form of expressing himself and even seeing others as being superior to him. Christian should be honest about their failing and be proud of their weaknesses for they shall be made strong through the power of Christ (Motaung K, 2014). Instead of Christians looking down on their weaknesses, they should be proud of Christ is manifested in their weaknesses and works through them for the glory of God. Review To start with, the Christian view of self esteem gives a mixed value of self esteem in social relation (Sabates, 2012). On one hand, the bible teaches about loving another as you love yourself in Mark12:31 while on the other hand the same bible teaches on self denial in the book of Mark 5:40 &16:24. The point of loving others as you is misused by the Christians in that they love themselves more. This is an exaggeration of the biblical teaching with some Christians looking down on others with an excuse of loving oneself which is not right. They are expected to show equal concern for others as themselves, which gives a fair self esteem for them. On the other hand, the teaching on self denial is contradicting in that it teaches people to think low of them. With this they view others as being more important than themselves, thus giving priority to others before them. To strike a balance between self denial and loving oneself, the understanding of Christ’s teaching on Gods kingdom and the redemption of the sinners by Christ. With this the Christians will have a self worth of them, but not pride in themselves in what they have but wait for eternal life in heaven. Moreover fellowship with God reminds Christians of who they are because of Christ, who healed them (Sandtorock, 2011). Renewed friendship with God reminds us of Gods contribution to our current position. This helps in restoring lost self esteem and Christians start appreciating themselves as they are. With time, the love for God takes over and they are able to love God more and see Him as the most important, more than themselves therefore appreciating the work of God in their lives. With the knowledge that no man is perfect, Christians should be able to appreciate themselves more. With the flaws that everyone has, nobody concentrates much on the flaws of others since they are all busy concentrating on their own flaws. God created each person differently and unique therefore instead of concentrating on their flaws the attention should be shifted to the God given gifts and talents that each person has. This brings out the uniqueness of every person thus no one is superior to the other as each is created with special unique features not common to all. Also, there are various circumstances that lead to low self esteem and thus should be handled appropriately to improve the self esteem of the affected Christian. Among them are the physical health, social status and economic status. To be able to handle the challenges of attention deficit disorder those affected should be educated, undertake medication as well as do meditation (Smart K., 2007). This may also be reinforced with an honest view of the person’s strength and weakness to be worked on as well as a clear record of the person’s progress. This works to improve the self worth of the person as they are now starting to receives some attention from their loved ones and see them as equally important in the society. This mainly affects children who may not be receiving the attention they need or may be demanding too much attention due to low self esteem. This may be treated to restore their self esteem. Self esteem with humility is also the way to go for Christians. This will see the Christians have confidence in themselves, even as they carry out their God given duties on earth. Moreover, a person with a good relationship with Christ have a high self esteem as they have confidence in their master in that they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. This enables them to dream and see a brighter future ahead that is not physically visible. This is the invisible promises that Christ gave the church of a good place that awaits them in heaven if they keep the way to the cross of Christ. Thus, according to Christians, none is superior in the kingdom of God since there are only two options for them, either follow Christ and enter heaven or follow the world and burn in hell. The creation story of a man in the bible has contributed to further the Christian perspective of self esteem (Gibbs, Errol & Grey, Philip, 2011). God created man in his own image and likeliness. Therefore, before God all human beings have the same image since they are all created in His likeness thus is equal before his eyes. Self esteem problems occur as a result of choices that human beings make on their paths of life. Since all human beings are the same, God gave them the freedom of choice to choose right from wrong out of their own will. Making wrong choices is what makes these Christians see others as superior thus lowering their self esteem. To connect the disparity of God’s perspective of Christians and the individual perspective of themselves, the Christians need to practice sensible self love. Self love is the act of acknowledging the sinful nature of all human beings and repenting thus going back to the intended path to Christ thus reconnecting with God again. Suicidal events are reported in both the normal Christian life and in the bible which can be attributed to the broken relationship with God (June, Black & Richardson 2002). The positive self esteem of Christians is attributed to the grace of God and Devine redemption by God. Not only does Christianity affect self esteem, but self esteem also affects their belief about Christians in their faith (Robison, 2007). When the Israelite was heading to Canaan, 12 spies were sent to survey the Promised Land and give feedback on their finding. Out of the 12 spies sent only two of them gave positive view of the Promised Land. Despite the abundance of the land, the spies felt demoralized by the huge physical appearance of the Canaanites compared to the Israelites. This lowered the self esteem of the spies and they felt they could not beat them. Therefore the low self esteem is a deterrent factor in the progress of Christians as they think they cannot and fail to exploit their full potential. Self image is the image that an individual has of himself in terms of his appearance and capabilities. This affects how others view you as yourself image reflects in the reaction to challenges faced thus giving a picture you to others. However a high self esteem may be viewed as arrogance while a low self esteem may be viewed as worthless (Payton, 2009). Therefore, only the opinion that matters is that of a few people who matter. Furthermore, the possessions of Christians cannot redeem them even low self esteem and low self worth cannot do any good to redeem the Christians (McLeod-Harrison, 2005). The only way to redemption is through repentance before God, which requires a healthy self esteem to do that. Humility of the Christians should have a limit to protect them from malicious missions. Humiliation cannot be tolerated as part of humility but Christians should defend themselves and not allow others humiliate them in the name of humility. The only person who endured humiliation justifiably is Christ who was humiliated by the Pharisees and even crucified to save mankind from sin. Through the blood of Christ on the cross all sins are forgiven; the price was paid for all thus no one else should be humiliated in the name of humility. The death of Christ on the cross repaired the broken relationship at the Garden of Eden. The biblical scripture are the most important in promoting the well being of human beings (In Aten, 2013). This qualifies the bible as the best therapeutically material for Christians through reading the bible and meditating on the scripture. After experiencing low self esteem and low self worth, a recovery journey for Christians for them to regain their glory in Christ (Haper, 2013). Admitting our powerless state over our addictions is part of the recovery process to regain self control. With this, Christians need to seek spiritual intervention to regain that control over them again. Although all have freedom of choice, addictions are an exceptional and if not well handled can damage the self esteem of the addict totally. Moreover, the adolescent age is not spared from the self esteem problems with more female adolescents showing lower self esteem compared to their female counterparts (Zee, 2012). This can be attributed to the more emotional change that the girls experience during adolescence. As a result, self esteem can be connected to the person’s emotions so that the more emotional a person is the higher their chances of losing their self esteem. Therefore, more spiritual guidance should be forwarded to the girls to help the have a positive self esteem. Christians, then have a duty to recollect their broken emotions and work towards being the branch of the tree Jesus Christ (Montgomery & Montgomery, 2009). This will work to help believers corporate with Christ in remolding their lives and repairing rigid personality trends to be flexible to Christ’s way of life. Conclusion Christians, therefore have a biblical view of self esteem of the Christian and depend on the Christian teaching such as self denial for oneself to shape their self esteem. In so doing, they also have to observe modesty to avoid degrading them to the level of humiliation. The teaching on loving others has also formed a basis for self esteem for Christians who appreciate themselves as being equally important as others. The creation story has had its fair share in shaping the self esteem of Christians as they were all created in the image and likeness of God therefore they are all the same before God. Eternal life is also a factor to consider as all Christians strive to have eternal life after death, which can be attained through receiving Christ; thus the life on earth does not matter much as all those who have received Christ and live in him to the end will all receive eternal life in heaven. However, all these challenges do not come on a silver platter. Some of the Christian’s actions as a sign of humility may lead to humiliation which should not be the case. High self esteem may also be viewed as pride (Clinton & Hawkins, 2011). Christian suffering from various emotional problems leading to low self esteem only needs to read the scripture and meditate on them to be able to recover thus pointing out the importance of biblical scriptures on psychological therapy. Thus for spiritual wellness and right state of the mind is through reconciling with God to be able to rebuild their broken relationship with God. References Clinton, T. & Hawkins, R. (2011). The popular Encyclopedia of Christian Counselling: An Indispensable tool for Helping people with their problems. Oregon: Harvest House Publishers Press. Gibbs, Errol A., & Grey, Philip A. (2011). Five Foundations of Human Development: A Proposal for Our Survival in the Twenty-first Century and the New Millennium. Authorhouse. Harper J. (2013). My Sanctuary, A Spiritual Journal: A Working Biblical Guide for the Twelve Steps for People Who Are in All Areas of Recovery. Xlibris Corporation. In Aten J. D. (2013). Evidence-based practices for Christian counseling and psychotherapy. Jackson W. (2014) Christian ccourier: bible and self esteem. Retrieved on 2 November 2014 from http://www.christiancourier.com/article/42-bible-and-self-esteem-the McLeod-Harrison, M. S. (2005). Repairing Eden: Humility, mysticism, and the existential problem of religious diversity. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. Montgomery D, & Montgomery K. (2009). Christian personality theory: A self compass for humanity. Montecito, Calif: Compass works. Motoung K (2014). Crosswalk.com : Biblical self esteem. Retrieved on 2 November 2014 from http://www.crosswork.com/women/fath/biblical-self-esteem.html Payton D.(2009). Journal to the Truth. Xulon Press. Sabates, A. M. (2012). Social psychology in Christian perspective: Exploring the human condition. Sandtorock. (2011). Christian meat for Christian muscles: Part 2. AuthorHouse. Smart K., Smart K. A Christian Perspective on Attention Deficit Disorder. Lulu.com, Dec 1, 2007 Willie Robison W. (2007). The 3 Biggest Problems in the Body of Christ and How to Solve Them. Xulon Press. Zee T.(2012). New perspectives on religious and spiritual education. (New perspectives on religious and spiritual education) Münster: Waxmann. Read More