Browsing Tag

self esteem

Daily Devotion and Bible Verse – July 1

Posted on July 1, 2015

Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do.” – Luke 24:39 (NLT)

Have you ever thought about the fact that the hands and feet of Jesus prove your worth? No other religion can say this. They can’t say the God they serve loved them enough to die for them. No other religion can say that their God did everything He could to get to know them.

That’s what makes knowing Jesus different. Jesus didn’t have His hands and feet pierced for kicks. Rather, He did it because you were worth it to Him.

So when you begin to question your worth, when you have days when you feel like no one even cares be encouraged. The one true God thinks you’re incredibly valuable. He died, went to hell, and rose again all so that He could know you and so that you could experience eternal life!

[message_box title=”Get More Daily Bible Verses” color=”red”]Here’s a list of a bunch of daily Bible verses to kickstart your day. [/message_box]

What a Thrown Away Apple Computer Can Teach Us About Value

Posted on June 3, 2015

Image Credit: Ed Uthman Wikimedia Commons

If you’ve been watching the news recently, you’ve seen some talk about an Apple computer that someone threw away. The crazy thing about the computer was that it was worth about $200,000. The computer the person threw away was one of the first Apple computers made and only about 50 of original computers exist still today.

The lady who threw the computer away didn’t realize the value of the computer. She thought it looked like junk and she discarded it. She had no idea she was getting rid of a $200,000 computer. View Article.

Lots of times this is a lot like how we view ourselves. We often get down on ourselves because of something dumb we said or did. We might not feel that we look the right way or have the right friends. This leads us to want to treat ourselves like junk, instead of realizing the true value we have.

See our value isn’t in what we do, what we wear or who we hang out with. Our true value comes when we realize what we’re worth. We find that worth in what the Bible says about us.

It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. – 2 Cor 3:5 (NLT)

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. – Eph 2:10

The Bible has lots of great things to say about your value. You’re important and created to do good things. So when the feelings come that say you’re not worth much or that you’re junk, remember that to God you have great value.

3 Reasons To Wait For Marriage

Posted on May 25, 2015

You might have heard at church or youth group about waiting until marriage to have sex. But in the halls of your school, the shows you watch on TV, and stuff you talk about with your friends, you hear lots of talk about sex. You hear how good it is, or how much fun it is. So when it comes down to it, why should you be waiting until marriage to have sex?

Here are three reasons to wait to have sex until you’re married.

You’re worth the wait.
You have got to believe this. You are incredible. You have limitless worth to God. He paid a huge price to get to know you. That fact alone should make you see how valuable you are to God. God sees you as important and valuable. You’ve then got to believe that about yourself too. You’ve got to take to heart your value to God and believe that you’re worth the wait. You might have a girlfriend or boyfriend who tells you differently. They might pressure you to have sex with them. However, stand firm in your belief that you have value to God.
The right person will see that value too and believe that you’re worth the wait. When you meet the right person, they will push you to be closer to God. They will see your value and want to wait to have sex. If the person you’re dating is pressuring you, run away. Realize that you’re worth the wait.
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8
The sex is better.
You might have seen the movies or read books about how awesome a one night stand is. Don’t fall for this lie. There is nothing fulfilling about casual sex. Sex is designed to be something that brings you together with someone. If you want to have great fulfilling sex, then don’t look for it in one night stands or other relationships. The best sex is found in marriage. God designed us for intimacy and relationship and His plan was for that in marriage.
If you want to have great sex, wait until you’re married. Its in marriage that you can really experience the joy God intended when He created sex.
Its easier on your heart.
Many people do survive a past relationship failure that involved sex and they still were okay. But if you were to ask them, they would tell you they have regrets from that relationship. That’s because sex is like glue. It bonds you to another person. When the relationship ends, you are still bonded to that person. And just like if you glued two pieces of paper together, and then later tried to separate them, there would be lots of ripping and tearing involved. In the same way, if you bond yourself to someone with sex and you’re not married when that relationship ends, there will be tearing of your heart. Your heart is too important to let this happen. Choose to not let yourself get hurt time and time again by saving yourself for marriage.

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
– 1 Cor 6:18 (NIV)

Help! No One Gets Me

Posted on May 13, 2015

Do you ever have times when you feel like no one understands you? Or maybe that those closest to you don’t really get you? It can be really hard to know what to do when you feel like those close to you don’t get you, don’t listen, or maybe don’t take your concerns seriously.

Even though sometimes your family or friends may not understand, Jesus does. The Bible describes it like this:

“For we do not have a high Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a fellow feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.” – Hebrews 4:15

The next verse says this: Heb 4:16 – “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

In other words, Jesus not only understands, He also has help for you to also beat the temptation and overcome every trouble. We are told to boldly come (because you’re His child) to the throne of grace and obtain or receive the mercy (that’s the help when we mess up) and the grace (that’s the strength to overcome) in time of need (that covers everything).

So when you feel like no one understands or is there to help you through a tough time, remember that Jesus is there for you. He understands and will always listen to you and have your back. Go to Him when you need help and someone to get you. He’s always ready to help you out.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you that you really understand what I’m going through. I’m glad You are my friend during this time. I come to your throne of grace and ask you to give me the help I need to overcome this situation and the strength to whip this temptation. I receive it and believe it’s mine. Thank You Jesus!

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Why Your Life Matters

Posted on April 15, 2015

I struggled many of my teenage years thinking that my life didn’t matter. I struggled with thoughts of suicide and wondered if anyone would even care if I wasn’t around anymore. If you’ve dealt with these feelings, you’re not alone. Many people struggle these feelings.

In this devotion, I want to share with you a few reasons why I believe your life matters. Despite what you might be feeling, your life is important, so lets look at why.

God chose you.

Have you ever thought about the fact that God chose you? That means that your life is important. Even when you compare yourself to your friends, and feel like you come up short, God chose you. He went out of His way to choose you. To Him, you’re extremely important!

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. – Ephesians 1:4 (NLT)

God loves you and He chose you to be a part of His family. That means your life matters!

God has something for you to do.

God has a plan for your life. He’s got something special that He wants you to accomplish. You’ve been put on this World for a purpose. God wants to use you to touch the lives of your friends and family with the good news of Jesus. Your life matters because God has a plan for you to do that only you can do.

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)

God has good plans for your life, so when you feel like your life doesn’t matter, realize that God says it does.

Being a teenager isn’t easy.

Its not easy being a teenager. There’s lots of challenges you face each day that can damage your feeling of worth. However, don’t allow yourself to be lied to and think your life doesn’t matter.

You are important. God puts a value on your life that is beyond description. He loves you more than you can ever comprehend. So when you begin to feel like you don’t matter and want to give up, remind yourself that to God you matter.

Help! I don’t Like Myself – Part 2

Posted on December 10, 2014

It can be really hard to like yourself at times. Social media doesn’t make it an easier. Its easy to see Sarah’s vacation pics on Twitter or Ben’s selfie on Facebook and become jealous. You might not have the money to take awesome vacations, or feel like you never measure up to how good Ben looks in all his selfies. It can be easy to see what’s going on in people’s lives and wonder ‘what’s wrong with me?’

In those moments, you might feel tempted to do things to make others like you better. You might fall into the trap of acting differently, wearing different clothes or being extra flirty with the opposite sex. Trying to act a certain way or change your appearance to get others to like you never turns out good in the end. Here are a few reasons why you should be true to who you are:

You are happier – Changing who you are to gain acceptance will always make you live with regrets. You are a special person that God loves greatly. The person you are is awesome. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to change who you are. You are created with a purpose and for a purpose. Don’t cheapen who you are by disguising yourself. Be who you really are, and you’ll be happier as a result.
People like you more – Believe it or not people actually will respect you more if you are true to who you are. Be yourself and as you do, people will respect you. People can usually tell when someone is being fake or not themselves. Be who you are and be who God created you to be. Others will respect and like you more when you do.

When you’re feeling bad and don’t like yourself, the best thing you can do is spend time reminding yourself how awesome God things you are. Spend time encouraging yourself that to God you are awesome.

God made you with a purpose. You’re not a mistake or accident. God has a unique plan for your life that only you can fulfill. He’s got things for you to do that no one else can accomplish. He’s got people who need to be touched by your life and what you have to say. Don’t get down on yourself because you don’t have as much money as someone else, or because you don’t look as good as someone else. Remind yourself of what God says about you. That you’ve been created with a unique purpose.

For I know the plans I have for you” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11 (HSCB)

Then go out and begin making a difference in your world. Begin to look for opportunities to help those around you who are hurting. God wants to use you!

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3 Ways to Improve Your Self Esteem

Posted on December 8, 2014

Sometimes, its really hard to feel good about yourself. When you see the girl at school who always looks perfect, not a hair out of place. Or you watch your older brother who always says and does the right thing. It can be easy to begin comparing yourself to others and feel like you don’t measure up.

So how do you deal with those days when you feel less than amazing? How do you deal with the feelings that you don’t measure up, or the temptation to look or act differently to be accepted?

We’ve put together a list of three ways that you can feel better about yourself, and improve your self esteem.

Make a list of what makes you special. You might feel like you really stink compared to other people, but most likely that’s not the case. Most likely, you’re a pretty amazing person, you’ve just got to take some time to think through what is so great about you.
Think about it, and begin to list the things that make you special. Maybe you really pay attention to those that don’t have friends. Perhaps you’re good at drawing, or math. Find out what it is that is awesome about you. And make a list of those things. Then when you’re feeling down, or need a self esteem boost, you can pull that list out and remind yourself that you’re really pretty great!
Change what you’re thinking. Many times feeling bad about yourself happens because of what you’re spending time thinking about. Maybe you’ve been comparing yourself to someone else and feel like you come up short. Or maybe you’ve just spent too much time thinking about all your faults. Sure, we all have faults, but it doesn’t good to think about them so much that it makes you unhappy.
Take a little bit of time to think good thoughts. Thoughts of how much God loves you and the value he places on you. As you change what you’re thinking about, you’ll find that you’ll be happier and your self esteem will be higher.
“Finally, my friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, pure, right, holy, friendly, and proper. Don’t ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise. ” – Philippians 4:8 (CEV)
Change what you’re saying. Watch what you say about yourself. If you keep saying you’re fat, ugly, or unlikeable you’ll start believing those things about yourself. Choose to pay attention to what you’re saying and eliminate those words that are hurtful and untrue about yourself.
Replace negative words with words of truth that God says about yourself. Make a decision to speak words of life over yourself and watch as your self esteem begins to grow.
If you don’t know where to start, here are a few scriptures to help you develop a healthier self-esteem.

Developing a healthy self-esteem doesn’t come over night. If you’ve gotten into bad habits about how you think and speak about yourself, it may take some time to redirect those habits. Don’t get discouraged if it takes some time to feel good about yourself. Stick with it, and know that you can overcome and have a healthy self-esteem However, if you ever get to the point in your battle with self-esteem issues where you need help, get it. Don’t be afraid or embarassed to ask. Your parents, pastors, or teachers can really help you out if you need it. Get the help you need to develop a healthy self-esteem.

Finally, go to God and be open and honest about what you’re dealing with. He is so ready to listen to you and help you. Tell him how you feel and ask his help in developing a healthy self-esteem.

Help! I Don’t Like Myself

Posted on January 3, 2014

Have you ever looked in the mirror and hated what you saw? Maybe you felt like the person staring back at you in the mirror was too fat or too skinny. Maybe you don’t mind how you look, but you can’t stand the way you act. You try to be funny, but no one seems to get your jokes. You just wish you could say the right thing at the right time. Sometimes, one of the hardest things to do in life is to like yourself. This dis-like of yourself if not checked can lead you to do destructive things, hang out with the wrong people, and maybe even attempt to harm yourself. So what should you do when you feel like you just don’t like yourself?

Stop comparing – If you compare yourself to others and use that to gauge how you feel about yourself, you will always come up with the wrong conclusion. There are always going to be people that are smarter than you, and there are going to be people who aren’t as smart as you. If you use others to judge how you feel about yourself, you’re going to find that sometimes you like yourself, and other times you don’t. This causes instability and makes life no fun. The Bible talks about comparing yourself to others in 2 Corinthians 10:12.
“Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!” – 2 Cor 10:12 (NLT)
Get God’s View – The best way to begin liking yourself is to find out what God says about you. Find some scriptures that help encourage you and speak them over your life. Choose to change your view of yourself by getting God’s view of you. Here’s a couple to get you started:
“God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God.” -1 Cor 6:20 (CEV)
“I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made.” – Psalm 139:14a (God’s Word)

God made you with a special plan, purpose, and destiny for your life. Don’t discount what God wants to do in and through you. He has amazing plans for your life. Spend the time developing a view of yourself that matches up to how God sees you. If you do, you’ll find yourself beginning to like who you are.

Read: Straight Talk on Insecurity: Overcoming Emotional Battles with the Power of God’s Word! by Joyce Meyer

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Learning to Like Yourself

Posted on October 18, 2013

Learning to like yourself is really hard sometimes. You can watch your friends on Facebook and see their profile and start to think, man I wish my life was more like theirs. Its easy to start comparing what you have and who you are to them and begin to feel like you don’t measure up to them.

Liking yourself and having a good self-esteem can be really challenging. So how do you begin liking yourself when you feel like you don’t measure up to those around you? We’ve got some suggestions below to help boost your self-esteem.

Do a reality check – This can be really tough to do, but take a realistic look at your situation. You might feel like no one really cares about you, but is that really true? Its easy many times to let something someone said or did make you think that no one cares about you. More than likely, you have a ton of people who really do care about you. You have parents, siblings, grandparents, and most importantly God that care about you. So when you think you’re all alone and that no one cares, do a reality check and realize that in reality you have people that care about you.
Check your thoughts – Its easy to get into a negative pattern of thinking about yourself. You can start to believe lies that you’re worthless, or that your life doesn’t matter. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. When these thoughts come, recognize them for what they are…lies. Take the necessary steps to switch your thoughts from negative patterns of thinking to ones that are positive. The Bible says in Philippians 4:8 (NLT) “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Checking to make sure your thoughts are good ones is an important step to winning the battle for your self-esteem.
Choose to see yourself like God sees you – Decide to begin to see yourself like God sees you. He doesn’t see you as a failure, as a loser or as anything bad you might think you are. He sees you as important. You’re so important that if you were the only person in the world he would have sent his son to die for you. Your life matters to God. He knows everything about you, and cares about everything that is important to you. God thinks so much about you that the Bible says his thoughts about you can’t be numbered. Psalm 139:17 (NLT) – “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!” I can count pretty high, so the idea that God thinks about you so much that those thoughts can’t be numbered just goes to show He cares about you a ton and a half. So, decide to see yourself like God sees you. Choose to base your worth on how God feels about you.

I believe that these tips can help you with learning to like yourself. The battle for your self-esteem is very real, but I believe that with God’s help, you can come out and win this fight!

Check out the song: Gold by Britt Nicole

Here’s a great book for you to read too: You Are God’s Best!: A Classic on Human Value

Do I Love God More Than My Reputation?

Posted on October 14, 2013

I remember a time when I was playing drums at church in the youth group band. Practice had gone well and I was geared for a great worship service. I started playing the set and somewhere around the second song, my drum stick flew right out of my hand and hit me right in my eye. It made a loud noise and totally messed up what I was in the middle of playing. I remember feeling so dumb. I couldn’t believe that my drumstick just flew right out of my hand and hit me in the eye. I had never done that before in my life. I felt so stupid and knew that everyone there at church had seen it happen.

Its so easy to put a lot of importance on how we look to others. We hate it when we look bad or embarrass ourselves in front of others. I think a lot of the time we take this same way of thinking into our relationship with God. We don’t want to look silly to our friends, so we don’t really speak up about how God has changed our lives. We think our friends might think we’re dumb for believing in God and so we shut up. We think our silence is better than us possibly looking silly in front of our friends.

So I have a simple question for you: Do you love God more than your reputation?

Do you love God more than what others think about you. Would you stand up for God at your school if no one else did. Would you be bold enough to tell a friend how Jesus has changed your life? Or are you like most people who are afraid to tell others about Jesus. Are you afraid that someone will think you’re stupid because you believe in God. Are you willing to stand up for Jesus, even if it means possibly losing your reputation? That’s a big thing to consider.

I challenge you to not let your reputation get in the way of telling others about who God is to you. Don’t let it shut you up or steer you away from sharing your faith. Choose to make God more important to you than your reputation!

Jesus Freaks: Martyrs: Stories of Those Who Stood for Jesus: The Ultimate Jesus Freaks

This book is easy to read and is filled with awesome stories of people who made a stand for Jesus. They didn’t worry about how they would look or who they would offend. They stood up for what they believed in.

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