God’s word - The Gold Standard of self-worth
God’s Word is The Gold Standard for Your Self-Worth
…the missing piece to the shame puzzle
brene Brown, shame, self-worth
This is part five of a six part interview/overview of my book Healing the Hurts of Your Past conducted at WWIB.com radio with Mark Halverson.
This session turned the corner on our discussion as we started to look at how to overcome the pain of shame. I began by talking about Brene Brown’s research on shame.
Brene Brown on Shame
Brene Brown's book called I Thought it was Just Meis an excellent book that I highly recommend. Brene does a great job of using both her research and personal stories to explain what shame is and how to unmask it.
She doesn't take a biblical approach (I wouldn't expect her too since she is an academic reporting her research) but her research and teaching strongly back up biblical teaching. Her insights into relationships, connection, compassion and courage will help anyone seeking to crawl out of the pain of shame.
The Gold Standard of Self-worth
But...having said that... I still think there is a piece missing from the shame puzzle. What I talked about on the radio program was "the gold standard" that backs up our statements, such as "you are valuable".
The problem I have with most self-esteem teaching is that it isn't rooted in anything. We tell people, "Don't listen to what people say...YOU ARE VALUABLE! YOU ARE A WINNER! YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!" My question to that is...Who says? YOU say that. Who are you? You might be wrong.
It's like our currency. I have two pieces of paper in front of me. One is an actual twenty-dollar bill. The other is a green slip of paper. I say they are both worth $20. That's nice. But who am I to make that declaration? Stores dont' care what I say. They care what the government says. The government backs up the worth of the twenty-dollar bill (it was originally backed up by gold, hence the term, "gold standard").
The government can point to their paper and say, "We declare that paper valuable. We created it and we back it up." But they can't say the same for my alternative piece of paper. My word means nothing.
The point is; value comes from people who can back it up. Not just wishful thinking.
God Defines YOur Worth
In the same way, the "gold standard" for self-esteem is the word of God (if you believe in God and the Bible as his word to us). The Bible tells us that God created us in his image. You can't get any more valuable than that.
The Bible also tells us that God came to earth in the person of Jesus and laid down his life out of love for us. Again, we MUST be valuable for God to do that. That's our gold standard. That's what we stand on.
Don't take my word for it! Who am I? Take God's word that you are valuable! It doesn't matter what others say about you. If you worked your way through my book and Brene Brown's book you will have a great package to help you overcome the pain of shame. My book will help you identify the lies you are believing about your worth (and where they came from) and help you hear from God the truth of your value.
Brene's book will help you identify your shame as well but she offers steps for people to start to tell their story and create connection with other people (connection being the opposite of the isolation that shame produces).
This is just a taste of what the radio show was about.
Learn more about shame and how to overcome in in my book, Healing the Hurts of Your Past.
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