Self-Esteem: Looking Up Instead of Looking Inside (NGP: Women's Issues)

How do you answer the question: “Who am I?” Do you base your self image on your successes, failures, acceptance, and/or rejections by others? Most of us do, but when we base our value and worth on external sources rather than what God says, our self–image will shift like sand, leading to an unstable and anxious sense of who we are.

Experienced counselor and author Leslie Vernick shares that the answer to healing a negative self–image and low self–esteem is not in trying harder, gaining more popularity, being more productive, having more possessions, securing more power, having a coveted position, or in achieving perfection. A healthy sense of self doesn’t happen by focusing on self at all. Instead a healthy self–image combines the security of knowing God’s love with the humility that comes from knowing ourselves and how much we need Christ.