Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Saving your life to lose it: Jesus and 2 kinds of self-esteem

Is self-esteem good or bad?  Maybe it depends on what kind you are talking about.  Read about the two different kinds of self-esteem on page 589 of the textbook. 
  • Compare and contrast the two kinds of self esteem IN YOUR OWN WORDS.  
One of the sayings of Jesus that he said the most often (Matthew 16:25 and context; John 12:25 and context; Matthew 10:39 and context; Mark 8:35 and context; Luke 17:33 and context) is "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."  As Christ-followers, we had better seriously reflect on something that Jesus said so often and in all four gospels. 
  • How might "saving your life" be like defensive self-esteem?  
  • How might "losing your life" be like secure self-esteem? 
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 2, 2013 at 9:08 AM

    Defensive Self-esteem: This type of self-esteem is what protects your emotions and helps you convince yourself you are right. If someone or something brings about failure, you become threatened which causes you to act angry and aggressive. You also care very much about what others think of you.
    Secure Self-esteem: This type helps you to accept you and not expect great out of yourself. It is more acceptive of failure and has lower expectations. It makes living alot easier and less stressful though.

    Saving your life could be much like defensive self-esteem in the fact that following Christ is not the "cool" or "normal" thing to do and many people could put failure on you and your belief.
    Losing your life could like secure self-esteem because if you do not care what others think about you and your thoughts and beliefs then you will much easier be able to follow God and His path without others talking you out of your walk.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 3, 2013 at 5:47 PM

    Defensive self-esteem is where one create a "good" self-esteem for oneself based on what the individual THINKS others think of him/herself, often even by denying things that are wrong with what s/he does or how s/he acts. You will do things to make yourself feel better about your self and your actions and justify things that are not necessarily logical or sensical simply so that it makes you look good in front of others, and feel good about yourself. If something happens that is out of your control and makes you look poorly, you feel threatened and display this by becoming angry.

    Secure Self-esteem is more internal and more stable than defensive self-esteem. It is self-esteem that comes from how we personally feel about ourselves. This type of self-esteem is, I would say, more difficult to obtain, but is totally worth the extra work.
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    "Saving your life" can be like defensive self-esteem in that if you are open about your beliefs, you can be ridiculed and given questions you may not be prepared for. This will weaken your faith if you are only (or more) worried about what others will think of your beliefs than actually what these beliefs mean to you. (It should be noted, however, that as you progress in your faith, you will most likely come to have more and better responses to these questions as you learn and become more connected with God.)

    "Losing your life" can be compared to secure self-esteem in that if you are not (or at least less) concerned with what others think of you than of whether your faith is true and right, it will not really matter what other people have to say about your belief system. (i.e. the Theodor Geisel quote: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.")

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