Summer, 2001

Self Esteem
By Staff Writer Sharon Barrett

Self Esteem: self worth, an opinion about yourself, amount of regard you have for yourself, whether it is high regard, not so high a regard. Self-esteem: The degree to which one values oneself. (Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.)

Do you have low self-esteem? Are you always putting yourself down before others can do it for you? Are you always making fun of yourself in front of others?

The next time you are tempted to put yourself down or even others; because I will include them also in this, remember who you are and who they are, children of GOD. GOD made you and others the way they are for a reason and it is not to make fun of yourself and/or others. We all have feelings! I know it doesn't hurt so much if we hurt ourselves before others can, but in the end you are only not just putting yourself down, but you are making those who think highly of you feel pity and uncomfortable around you! And those who think highly of you will begin to think less of you! No matter what your age or background, experiences, personal worth and happiness has to be one of the most important things in a woman's life. If you can't love yourself, then how can you expect others to love you?

Oscar Willed said, "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."

Self-esteem is an experience of a lifetime. It is a good deal more than a mere feeling. It involves emotional, evaluative, and cognitive components. It also entails certain action dispositions: to move toward life rather than away from it; to move toward consciousness rather than away from it; to treat facts with respect rather than denial; to operate self-responsibly rather than the opposite. And it is a forward movement towards GOD, because it shows how much you love GOD's decision on how he made you personally. Remember God saw you and approved you in your mother's womb. Psalms 139:16 " Your eyes saw even the embryo of me, and in your book all its parts were down in writing. As regards the days when they were formed and there was not yet one among them." So think about that before you decide to put yourself down. And remember GOD doesn't make junk! N.W.T. of the Holy Scriptures

Self-esteem is the disposition to experience oneself as being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and of being worthy to be happy, you are worthy! It is confidence in the efficacy of our mind, in our ability to think. By extension, it is confidence in our ability to learn, to make appropriate choices and decisions, and respond effectively to change. It is also the experience that success, achievement, fulfillment. happiness are right and natural for us. God didn't make us to be unhappy with ourselves; he made us to be filled with joy and self worth.

Then there is the person who deals with low self-esteem by putting others down to make them feel better about themselves. In truth what the person is saying is I want you to like me, but I don't want you to like them. When a person does this they really are placing a very bad opinion on themselves. So before you run down a popular person, or a person you think is better at something then you are, remember what the LORD would say to your actions.

Eph. 3:17 " so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love." Rooted means to be well planted! If your roots run deep like the mighty oak tree then you can not fall, but bend in the wind. Bending in the wind is far better then breaking off. And love is the same way it bends in the wind; only to come back and stand strong and tall once the wind subsides.

Take good care of yourself, and love yourself first! Then everyone else will find you easy to love in return.

If you want to take a self-esteem test go to this web page and take the test for yourself, but for it to work you must be honest with your answers. And just for the record I need to work on my self-esteem. http://www.self-esteem-nase.org/jssurvey.shtml

There is a lot of self-help on the Internet for people who have a low self-esteem problem.

Amazing Story
Submitted by Phillip & Stephanie Wilson

I was born in 1725, and I died 1807. The only godly influence in my life, as far back as I can remember, was my mother, whom I had for only seven years. When she left my life through death, I was virtually an orphan.

My father remarried, sent me to a strict military school, where the severity of discipline almost broke my back. I couldn't stand it any longer, and I left in rebellion at age of ten. One year later, deciding that I would never enter formal education again, I became a seaman apprentice, hoping somehow to step into my father's trade and learn at least the ability to skillfully navigate a ship. And I determined that I would sin to my fill without restraint, now that the righteous lamp of my life had gone out. I did that all the days in the military service and I further rebelled.

My spirit would not break, and I became increasingly more and more a rebel. Because of a number of things that I disagreed with in the military, I finally deserted, only to be captured like a common criminal and beaten publicly several times. After enduring the punishment, I again fled.

I entertained thoughts of suicide on my way to Africa. I decided on Africa, because it would be the place I could get farthest from anyone that knew me. And again I made a pact with the devil to live for him.

Somehow, through a process of events, I got in touch with a Portuguese slave trader, and I lived in his home. His wife, who was brimming with hostility, took a lot out on me. She beat me, and I ate like a dog on the floor of the home. If I refused to do that, she would whip me with a lash.

I fled penniless, owning only the clothes on my back, to the shoreline of Africa where I built a fire, hoping to attract a ship that was passing by. The skipper thought that I had gold or slaves or ivory to sell and was surprised that I was a skilled navigator. And it was there that I virtually lived for a long period of time.

I went through all sorts of narrow escapes with death only a hairbreadth away, on a number of occasions. One time I opened some crates of rum and got everybody on the crew drunk. The skipper, incensed with my actions, beat me, threw me down below, and I lived on stale bread and sour vegetables for an unendurable amount of time. He brought me above to beat me again, and I fell overboard. Because I couldn't swim, he harpooned me to get me back on the ship. And I lived with the scar in my side, big enough for me to put my fist into, until the day of my death. On board, I was inflamed with fever and enraged with the humiliation.

A storm broke out, and I wound up again in the hold of the ship, down among the pumps. To keep the ship afloat, I worked as a servant of the slaves. There, bruised and confused, bleeding, diseased, I was the epitome of the degenerate man. I remembered the words of my mother.

I cried out to God, the only way I knew, calling upon His grace and His mercy to deliver me, and upon His son to save me. The only glimmer of light I could find was in a crack in the floor above me, and I looked up to it and screamed for help.

God heard me.

Thirty-one years passed, I married a childhood sweetheart. I entered the ministry. In every place that I served, rooms had to be added to the building to handle the crowds that came to hear the gospel that was presented and the story of God's grace in my life.

My tombstone above my head reads, "Born 1725, died 1807. A clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he once long labored to destroy."

I decided before my death to put my life's story in verse. And that verse has become a hymn.

My name? John Newton.
The hymn? "Amazing Grace

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