Mandy's Musings

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Women and Self-Esteem (Post #1)

I'm giving a seminar next Tuesday at our MTS Women's Training entitled: 'Women and Self-Esteem' and wanted to enlist your help. The plan is to post in sections what I'm hoping to cover and get your input to help me refine what I'm going to say.

The plan:
The presenting problem (Post #2)

The world's solution (Post #3)

The Bible's solution (Post #4)

Living in light of a right view of the self - practical tips (Post #5)

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posted by Mandy at Tuesday, March 13, 2007

7 Comments:

  • Wow. of course as you know feminist theologians say that 'woman's sin' is more self-hatred rather than pride (seen by Augustine et al as the key sin of all). Both are actually species of unbelief aren't they?

    One of the trickiest parts of this kind of issue is knowing which aspects are spiritual and which are therapeutic - or, at least trying to entangle these aspects.

    By Blogger michael jensen, at Tuesday, March 13, 2007 8:06:00 pm  

  • Making women feel guilty - especially Christian women - is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.

    Given that this is true, why aren't you feeling bad about it? You should...

    By Blogger Neil Cameron (One Salient Oversight), at Wednesday, March 14, 2007 7:47:00 am  

  • I think the presenting issue is looking for esteem (value/worth/purpose) in self. This is to run right into the sin of breaking the first commandment. We (male or female) can only find our worth in Christ.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Wednesday, March 14, 2007 9:22:00 am  

  • Michael - so true, both are unbelief and sin finds its expression in many ways in all of us.

    OSO you said 'Making women feel guilty - especially Christian women - is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.' Interestingly enough, one of the reason we wanted to look at this issue was that so many women do find themselves feeling guilty and inadequate unneccesarily so this is a way of attempting to help the trainees first of all think rightly themselves, then be able to help the women they minister amongst to think rightly too.

    Helen - you've preempted Post 4! My first point on the Bible's view of self is that it is located externally not internally.

    By Blogger Mandy, at Wednesday, March 14, 2007 9:31:00 am  

  • My suspician is that low self-esteem is actually pride. Look forward to hearing your ideas.

    By Blogger Simone R., at Wednesday, March 14, 2007 2:42:00 pm  

  • Hi Mandy,

    I wish I could come to your conference. I'm a self esteem slave, I reckon. But I don't think that this is a problem only for women.

    Lately, my self esteem gets pumped by ticking things off my daily list. It's ridiculous; you could put anything on that list and I would feel good about completing it.

    Simone, what motivates your suspicion that low self esteem is actually pride? Is it because deep down we think we're worthy of receiving kudos, so we try hard to get it? (hmm, that's not exactly what I meant...hard to explain)

    By Blogger The Borg, at Wednesday, March 14, 2007 11:25:00 pm  

  • Or is pride just low self-esteem?

    By Blogger byron smith, at Thursday, March 15, 2007 4:22:00 pm  

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