High Esteem part 1
Self-esteem is important. Especially if you don't have it. But, at the same time, you don't want to get too big for your britches. Being humble is not necessarily thinking less of yourself, but rather thinking of yourself less. Putting others first. Philippians 2:3, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Again, not thinking you're worse than anybody else, but just focusing on others. Not competing with others... but helping others. Lowliness of mind is the mind of Christ. Not worrying about yourself because you know your heavenly Father has your back. Not worrying about what you've got, but using what you've got to help others with what they need. When you give (or share) what you've got... that's how you can really experience it. If you want to feel love... love someone. If you want to feel good... make someone else feel good. Here's my key memory verse for this Rant series, because I really want to focus on esteeming OTHERS, "And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves" (1 Thessalonians 5:13). And this is a big key to unlock the door on HOW we be at peace among ourselves. We stop looking at it like us vs them and we start to understand that we are all in this together. Let me tell you something about myself: I really appreciate effort. I know life is messy. I know stuff happens. Every. Single. Day. So to me, the whole point of the whole thing is to do your best and forget the rest. If you're at least trying, that shows me that you care. And if you care enough to try, that's good enough for me. I've mentioned before many times that the old wrestler Mr. Perfect was one of my favorites. He was so good at everything. And he was super cocky about it. Just as cool as the other side of the pillow. He was the man, and he knew he was the man. However, as cool as he was, that's the opposite of what we're talking about here. Spiritual perfection is not never making a mistake. It is the maturity to know that you can't learn from your mistakes if you never make any. It's knowing that we are all learning and growing. Grace to grow as we grow in grace. And the best way--look, the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. Right? Learn by doing. Give what you've got. Experience it by sharing it. Shared experiences are almost always better than solo experiences. I kind of went a little bit astray from my original idea for this Rant series tonight. But that's why I do them in series form--so I can have a few days to really dig into things. I really want to talk about appreciating the people in our lives. "Esteeming them very highly in love for their work's sake." That's the effort I was talking about. When someone does something for you... that's important. That's huge. A labor of love. And we need to make sure we aren't taking that--or the person doing it, especially--for granted. Because there's nothing worse than feeling like you extended your hand to someone and they slapped it away. Or that you reached out and they don't even care. Makes you want to stop reaching out. So, on the heels of what we've been talking about regarding treating people with a basic level of dignity and respect... we need to make sure we appreciate the people in our lives. Highly esteem them!