Self Esteem Building

Would You Really Throw Away A Valuable Gift?

self_esteem_building My church had a guest Pastor whose sermon had a profound message that I relate to self esteem building. The Pastor talked about a young student who searched his backpack for a pencil. The student searched through all of the contents in his backpack until he came across an unused Visa gift card. You see, the student's aunt had given him the gift card almost a year prior. There the card sat - unappreciated, unused, and forgotten.

"Wow," I thought. In my mind, that gift card represented all of the positive traits and compliments I ignored and brushed off on a daily basis. You see, when self esteem is low, there is a tendency to focus on the negative (everything we perceive to be wrong with us). We focus so much on the negatives that we believe everyone can blatantly see our flaws.

Fortunately, I've come to realize that God blesses each of us with unique gifts. We all have talents and skills that surpasses others. Better yet, throughout the Bible, God uses flawed people to accomplish great things - either way, we win. The key is self acceptance. We must learn to appreciate and use our gifts, instead of tucking our gifts away - unappreciated, unused, and forgotten. This is not to suggest that we ignore our flaws. The idea is to accept both our good points and our bad points. This helps us bring balance to our thoughts - both positive and negative.

Self acceptance is the challenging aspect of self esteem building. Nonetheless, the first step is to dig out your gift card from the bottom of your baggage. The next step is to simply say, "thank you." Be grateful. Accept everything about you - the good and the bad. Most importantly, do not leave your gifts unopened.