Christ-Esteem

The snow is lightly falling, glittering lights in every window, Christmas songs playing in every store...


I LOVE Christmas shopping (in case you couldn't tell!).

It seems, however, that before I can even think about Christmas shopping (like, in August, for example), stores are already sending out magazine after magazine through the mail, and more advertising e-mails than I can possibly handle. In s0me ways this makes Christmas shopping easier later on, because I already have a pretty good idea of what to get everyone. In other ways though, it can be annoying.


One of the things I like least about advertisements is the extent they go to to get us to buy whatever they're selling. Who hasn't seen ads with phrases such as:

"You deserve it."
"You NEED this."
"This could change your life."

The problem with all of these statements is the focus: SELF. I don't think I've ever seen an advertisement that supported contentment, giving, or being happy with who you are, where you are, and what you have. If you were content with what you had, after all, you wouldn't be buying their product.


The sad thing is that in our culture, many people do think predominately about themselves. This selfish mindset can produce all kinds of tragic consequences in people's lives. Our society desperately needs to find the cure for selfishness so we can turn our focus back toward God and other.

So what IS the cure for selfishness?

Many people will tell you it has to do with believing in YOURSELF and having SELF-esteem. In fact, these ideas are quite popular among people trying to escape the our current selfish society. But do you see the problem with these two phrases?

The problem, again, is SELF. Though popular, the core focus in this belief is still SELF.


The only true answer to a confidence issue is to stop focusing on yourself and begin focusing totally on Jesus Christ. When we find our worth in Him alone, everything else fades into the background. Thoughts about how we look and what others think of us will fade out of the picture, until all we are truly care about is learning to serve Christ better. He created us to shine as a living example of His glory, drawing other believers and unbelievers closer to Him. Suddenly, what we look like is no longer the first thing people notice about us. They will see Christ's light shining so bright in us, that nothing really matters. When we stop obsessing about ourselves and allow Christ to take complete control of our lives, we become a reflection of Him. As Princess Gloria said in an earlier post, we become like a mountain lake that reflects His glory. He is so much bigger than us, he takes up all of us so that noting else can even be seen. One of my favorite verses is something Paul says in Galatians 2:20, "For it is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." I would love for that to be a description of my life.

Wouldn't you?


Blessings in Christ,