An Idea That's Time Has Come....Again

My parents have given us several magazine subscriptions - some because I like the magazine and some because they got it free somehow. I think that's how I got the subscription to Better Homes and Gardens. And although I think that of all the magazines I get, this is the one I will miss the least when the subscription runs out, I still like to look through it. I don't have to tell you that it's mostly home decor and gardening tips, but they do have a few other articles.

Anyway...

The March 2007 issue of Better Homes and Gardens has a short, but note-worthy article in the back (pg. 246 to be exact) in a section called Healthy You: Well-Being. The article is called "Making Good Adults". The article is about self-esteem and self-control.

Self-control is one of the Bible's "Fruit of the Spirit" - I can't think of anywhere in the Bible that it uses the words self-esteem. Probably because the Bible seeks to esteem God and since we are God's creation, that gives us all the worth we need.

The BHG article is, in a way, in agreement with these ideas. Self-esteem "doesn't work" according to Jack Croft, who wrote the article. He quotes an FSU psychology professor as saying, "My advice would be to forget about self-esteem and concentrate on self-control...being able to resist temptation, control your impulses, focus your thoughts, and perform up to your capacity."

The Bible's teaches against pride and selfishness because focusing on self leads to sin of all kinds. I found it interesting that this article basically came to the same conclusion as the Bible. Croft pointed out that encouraging self-esteem hasn't lessened social ills (drugs, etc.) and that it hinders children from developing empathy.

So will we dig self-control from the pages of the Bible back to the forefront of society? I doubt it. Since the fall of man, the "self" has bucked against God's soverignty. The writer of the article is right - self-control will make better adults than self-esteem, but we will still struggle with that self until Christ returns and God makes all things new.