Years ago, educators and parents became concerned about the number of children whose self esteem was low, creating all sorts of academic and social problems for them. As is often the case in our secular world, everyone overcorrected. Soon, children could do no wrong. They were told how wonderful and special they were multiple times a day. They and their work were never criticized and anything deemed vaguely competitive was erased from their lives, because “losing” might damage their self esteem.
What seemed positive for a while suddenly started producing children whose self esteem was too high. They had perhaps different, but equally serious issues. They often became entitled, bullied others and emotionally melted down when things didn’t go their way. So what is the answer?
I believe the solution is godly self esteem. God gave us our strengths and wants us to develop and use those to serve Him. He is also fully aware of our weaknesses. He wants us to acknowledge and correct them to more accurately reflect His image. There is a call to perfection, balanced with a love beyond measure and the opportunity for grace when we fail.
A fun activity to introduce your Bible students to a discussion on godly self esteem is the split self portrait. You will need preferably white cardstock paper and all of the fun art supplies like paints, oil and acrylic crayons, watercolor pencils etc. you can fit into your budget or you can use whatever you have on hand.
Have the students create a self portrait. This one is to be divided in half. One half is to represent how they see themselves and the other how they think people see them. Students that are self reflective will have intriguing results, but all will enjoy the process (even teens!) and be encouraged to think about their self image and how others may perceive them.
When students are about half finished, have them pause for a minute. Introduce the idea that God knows who we really are and our potential to be the Christian He wants us to be. Encourage students to write words around their portrait reflecting how they believe God sees them. Remind them that they only have to share with others what they wish to share.
Allow any students willing to share their finished works of art to do so. What they say may encourage others to reflect on new areas in their lives. You can learn a lot by merely observing the others as they work.
Using this fun activity can be a launching point for your discussion. Encourage them to integrate their self image so they (and others) view themselves as God sees them and respond accordingly.