Imagine a youth who is well behaved, polite and properly attired. Someone who listens and obeys their parents. Works as a volunteer at church and social organisations on the weekends. What would you call him or her?
An oddball. A freak. A nerd.
Can we just take a breath and a pause to reflect on what has happened to our perception of moral values and cultural mores? The absurdity of taking what looks to be a more biblical model for behaviour and saying that it is out of the norm? We sometimes need to step back and take a look in the mirror to see how warped we've become, because we have accepted the lowest common denominator of social behaviour, applied the weakest of standards to our youth, and deemed it okay; even worth developing
It is the equivalent of giving everyone an 'A' because we don't want to damage their precious self esteem.
I see this in many instances. When a youth event is Bible study, hardly anyone turns up. When it is a 'fun' event involving worship, food and what-not; the place is filled to the brim. The watchwords of this age are fun, good feelings and being happy. To which I say: Beware - these will not get you the Kingdom of God.
Look, I don't have just classical music on my iPod. Nor do I dress like someone out of 'Revenge of the Nerds'. What's on the outside doesn't always reflect the inside but it is folly to suppose that there is no connection between the two whatsoever. You are what you eat. You dress and behave the way you feel and think. Perhaps, we need to think about that a little and check the way we portray ourselves to the world.
I gauge it very simply. Whenever I drop my 89-year old grandmother at church on Sunday, hardly anyone ever bothers to open my car door to help her out. They just walk by caught in their own little world. So, really , there is nothing radical about our faith when this happens, nothing radical about our church and nothing radical about our people
To paraphrase a song, 'We are the World', and that is a sad indictment indeed according to biblical standards
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8 comments:
i read a book recently and the author said that self-esteem has to be earned, not given. Giving praise or holding back criticism so that the person's self esteem will not be damaged is in fact doing that person a major disservice because that person will have a wrong evaluation of himself. The person should learn to earn his/her self esteem, as in, to put effort in and do something well and earn the merit.
it goes along these lines. i hope i remember it correctly. hehe.
I like that. But where does one draw the line between self-esteem and pride?
hmm..i guess feeling proud for what you have accomplished is not bad but thinking that you are better than others and belittle them is pride.
that's what i think...:P
Guys, I used to think the same but recently, I've come to question the whether the notion of self-esteem is really a biblical concept
I do agree that this 'something' has to be earned, and not given. But if this 'somthing', call it 'self-esteem', leads to an inflated view of one's self; then it it dangerous - I guess what Nick alluded(sp) to when he spoke about the line between pride and self esteem
Personally, I prefer the term 'God esteem'. We esteem God, we glorify him and we magnify him - that is our role. The first being to self esteem himself was, of course, Satan - and we know how that ended up! :-)
But what do you guys think of this - that the world thinks we beat ourselves down too much, and thus, lack self-esteem?
lol. sorry for the extreme late reply. was thinking what to say. hehe.
the bible does say to judge ourselves with a sober judgement, i.e, not to think of ourselves too highly or too lowly but see ourselves just as we are. if we note our weaknesses, we are not beating ourselves down but merely acknowledging a fact that we are not strong in that area.
in the same way, when we acknowledge our strengths, we are not proud or boastful but merely acknowledging a fact. however, to prevent us from boasting over others, we have areas of weakness where it could be someone else' strength. check and balance i guess.
this is what i think. :P
I agree, Ian. But what is the benchmark for gauging your weaknesses and strenghths. Using the world's definitions is what the modern church has tended to do, and the damage shows because when we are held up to the real mirror (i.e: the biblical standard), we recoil.
But instead, of using that gauge, we use a term called 'self-esteem' which places inherent value of yourself to your own self. Read that carefully, and let me know how it corresponds to the Biblical standard
hmm...wait...we are talking of weakness and strengths in what terms? is it our ability? our character? or is it everything?
It's everything, but it seems that in the Bible, the emphasis is more on character.
For example, there are warnings are admonitions about being quarrelsome, lazy, angry etc. But nothing on whether you should shore up your weak tennis game by working on your backhand
In a sense, the Bible is more concerned about the things that last (intrinsic rather than extrinsic matters
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