Like so many factors in life, self-esteem is important to highly effective functioning for an individual. It is important to persons who rely on the leader, the parent, the teacher, or any other person with whom one has to do. Not only ought I have proper self-esteem, but those on whom I depend, and with whom I share responsibility ought also to have sufficient esteem for self and others that one feels there is compass to relationships – so we seek good from each other. It touches on problem solving, on safety, on just about everything one has to do even to matters of integrity and morality. The gratification of life is related to it. Most suicides may be attached, to some degree at least, with low self-esteem, even if the declension would be momentary. Why take the life of a valued thing, even oneself – especially oneself? What happens when esteem morphs itself into pride, or arrogance, or undue specialness? History is strewn with strutters. Nations suffer for emerging arrogance. One can follow this in the mutations of Saul in the Old Testament, even the beloved King David at times. The difference in the men is in the recovery of David to finish well, and the distortions of Saul that led to brutal death and no honorable continuing legacy.
Studies show that good persons, respectful of themselves, advance faster and better than bad persons. (We do not generalize from exceptions.) Good persons are better liked than others, and better liked leaders hold some power by being liked. To dislike a parent invites disobedience from a child. To dislike a teacher, invites inferior production and learning from a student. So the story goes. There is something in the good that gives value to what is looked for in that individual, and some esteem lost in the bad that could emerge if they were good. (I might use better words than good and bad from my perception, like affirmative and negative, but I use the pedestrian language here so to accent generality.) So it is that God gives meaning to righteousness in his own holiness. There is divine meaning in mankind emanating from God’s nature.
However, it is well known that once the person has advanced by the force of that perceived to be good, something may go wrong. The status of the liked person may give rise to a pride that drives that person backward. Privileged status is sometimes fed by those who will be offended at it when it fully emerges. Now the person feels worth, but dilutes it with a pride of place, pace and privilege relating to hoarded power. The self begins to distort, and darken. He or she feels deserving of special treatment; too easy forgiveness for failure; perhaps given more of the better things; and, afforded no fault status. He or she is not to be criticized for taking that which is denied to those standing on lower levels of recognition and culture. There is lost balance, fake humility, distorted realization about human equality and morality, perhaps reduced belief that God loves each person equally. Self-esteem now becomes something else. In all this and more, pride to arrogance is making something of a demigod. Without humility we lose truth.
One is reminded of the scene in the cinematic drama, Billy Budd, when Claggert is told that he acted so viciously to individuals and the crew as he did because he hated himself. Claggert’s character is measured against the character of Budd. Out of the good self, there emerged grief for Budd, but he would not deny himself – calling for God’s blessing on the Captain before being executed for the death of Claggert. In its way, the scene is like that of Stephen in the Book of Acts, asking God to forgive the persons stoning him to death, as illustrated also in the experience of Jesus on the cross. Life is sometimes like that, and we do well to consider even the small values that relate to life. (I Peter 2:19-20) So we learn the grace of humility, we accept our value to God, and we offer lives worthy of that grace. It is the struggle of good and evil. Each of us has within us the right and the wrong. It is up to us to love that good self and disarm the bad. If effective with God, the bad is slain. When we respect the better factors of our characters, we have proper self-esteem. Yielding to the bad, we weaken self-love, so weaken love for others. It is not a matter of status in the world of achievement, wealth and power, but in our being and character – under God. That is achieved by the work of the Holy Spirit within the fully furnished Christian. Esteem for the Christian is found in the belief that willing to do God’s will offers some personal authority. We know from Scripture that through thick and thin we have the power for life that does not fade. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020