Self-esteem vs. Christ-esteem

A while back, a few of us older children migrated down to the play room at our friend’s house, where the children were happily playing “store."
Taking their cash register, we proceeded to scan all the little children to see how much they were worth. And guess what? No price showed up, so of course we dubbed them, “priceless.” This continued (we even scanned all of us older children) until we got to my older sister. We scanned her and guess what? She was worth a whopping two dollars and fifty cents! Of course, that caused a great deal of ruckus and hollers of laughter, and to this day, we still don’t let her live it down. But it got me to thinking: How much are we worth? And not only that, but where do we find our worth? 

​Since I’ve started growing my platform, my goal has been to get as many subscribers as I possibly can. And in addition to that, getting more traffic on my site. Because we’re an open family, I’ve been quick to share my excitement whenever I receive a new subscriber, and I usually keep everyone updated on how many people were on my website the past week. Before I reached 100 subscribers, I was very motivated and excited, because I was quickly reaching my goal. Whenever I added one more email to my list it was as if I were celebrating my birthday all over again!
My family is amazing, and they are always very encouraging! My siblings are always quick to offer words of encouragement and my Daddy even bought me flowers to celebrate one certain occasion. My Mother too, has been kind and encouraging, always there to listen to my long-winded tales about how amazing the YWW is! (Young Writers Workshop)
It was during this that my mother brought something to my attention. She said lightly, “make sure this isn’t where you are finding your worth.”
 
That got me to thinking. Where do I find my worth? Is it in how many likes I get on a Facebook post, or how many people comment on my blog? Do I find it in how many blog subscribers I have or in how many followers I get?
I’ve discovered that the question isn’t how much am I worth, but rather where do I find it?
 
The world endeavors to tell us all about our self-worth. It tries to build us up into some sort of god that we aren’t. They make a great effort to cause us to believe our worth is found in our appearance, or in how rich we are. It attempts to convince us that our worth is found in costly jewelry, designer clothing, and having “high friends in society.”      
Since the world is telling us that, we can be absolutely certain that it isn’t true. But guess what we can believe and trust? The Bible. And I must say, it does a fantastic job in explaining where our true worth should be found. 

Today, we are barraged with the lie to “love ourselves.” The world promises that the way out of low self-esteem is just to love yourself more. Yet, this scripture doesn’t say that at all. In fact, it says the complete opposite. It says, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.” Or in other words, we shouldn’t have an overly high opinion of ourselves, or exaggerated ideas about our self-importance.
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Most of the time what the world deems beautiful is not the Lord’s definition of beauty. Or as it says in Samuel, “people look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God isn’t going to look at our clothing and give us extra points for dressing classy. He’s not going to look at my website stats and say, “you had 500 views this month-well done good and faithful servant.” He’s not going to look at anything that has to do with our outward appearance because He doesn’t consider that, rather, He considers our hearts. He looks at our hearts to determine our beauty and by looking at that, He knows where our worth lies. 

This verse has always been one of my favorites! Because it ensures us that the Lord does indeed care about us! Amid His promises to “never leave nor forsake us,” or to “show us continual forgiveness” (and the other roughly, 5,000 promises in the Bible) He reminds us that not even a bird falls to the ground without His knowledge. And if He cares that much about a tiny bird (who has no spirit) try to imagine how much He cares about us, His children!
 
 
In truth, it’s not even about “finding our worth and self-esteem,” but rather making sure that we are esteeming Christ rather than ourselves.
If we’re finding our worth in Christ and only caring about what He thinks of us, then we’ve already taken a giant step in the right direction!
 
How do we find our worth in Christ?   

1. If we Humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, He will lift us up (James 4:10)
2. Look at Christ’s work and not your own (Phil. 2:21)  
3. The best we possibly do, is still filthy rags in God’s sight (Isaiah 64:6)
   
4. Don’t look at yourself, look at what Christ has done (Psalm 143:5)
   
5. Sacrifice ourselves and endeavor to serve Christ (Romans 12:1)

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​Where does your worth lie? Are you endeavoring to serve Christ rather than yourself?
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Let’s do something this week; let’s try our best to make sure we are serving Christ and honoring Him in all that we do. Let’s humble ourselves, sacrifice ourselves and attempt to keep our eyes on Christ’s work rather than our own.
God is our Father and He is the King, so let’s make it a point to be the best servants we possibly can.



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