There’s a revolution going on.

“The more I talked to men as well as women, the more it seemed that inner feelings of incompleteness, emptiness, self doubt and self hatred were the same, no matter who experienced them, and even if they were expressed in culturally opposite ways.”

As I have visited and worked in various parts of the world, I’ve found the same thing to be true.  The area of self esteem is increasingly being explored and many solutions are found wanting. Even though this subject elicits interest and results in an abundance of discussion and material, many of us continue to struggle with this area of our lives.  I have heard it said, “There are five billion people in the world.  There are five billion people who struggle with self esteem.”  It is a human condition.  Let’s examine what self esteem is and look at various ways we attempt to gain it.

It is possible to have proper self esteem as we are rightly related to our creator, God.  We were created with these deep needs for personal security and significance and God designed a way to meet those needs when we are rightly related to Him.

How do we obtain proper self-esteem?

Taking an honest look at yourself is often the best way to evaluate where you are and where you want to go.

How do we maintain a well-balanced sense of self-esteem?

We need a way of handling the little day-to-day setbacks in our sense of security and significance.  It all starts with our thinking.  We have to retrain ourselves to think of what is true about me.

What is self-esteem?

The most basic need all of us have is to have a sense of personal worth.  This sense of personal worth has two elements:  security and significance. Security means being loved and accepted just for who I am, regardless of what I do.  This is what Gloria Steinem calls ‘core’ self esteem and psychologists refer to as ‘global’ self esteem, being loved and accepted.

Significance means having meaning or purpose in my life, being adequate for what I do. Ms. Steinem refers to this as situational self esteem.  It’s knowing that we are good at what we do.  The problem is that we develop a series of false assumptions of what we think will meet our needs for security and significance. We usually learn these assumptions in childhood.  If we don’t experience unconditional love and acceptance as a child we will experience pressure to have those needs met elsewhere.  And if we aren’t given a sense of competency and significance in childhood, we will also experience pressure to meet that need elsewhere.

The proper formation of security in childhood – this ‘intrinsical value’ – can be affected by many things and abuse at many levels is a growing problem.  Living with constant ridicule, contempt and negativity can affect a child’s security into adulthood.  Perhaps you’ve overheard a parent criticizing a child.  It’s not just the words that are used, but also the tone of voice that can deeply affect the child.

A child hearing this continually internalizes the words and tone and they can become part of her view of herself.  The tape in her mind plays the messages back as significant information learned from her parents.  Some parents put enormous pressure on their children to perform.  Children in these situations often grow up to be overachievers with the voice of their parents’ disapproval ringing in their ears.  The child within is now inhabiting an adult body.  What assumptions, as adults, do we hold on to?

As I mentioned, these basic assumptions are often begun as a child and are heavily influenced by our peer group.  We can all develop wrong and false assumptions about how to have our needs met.  The reason they are called false assumptions is because they do not give us unconditional love, acceptance and firm significance in life.  They give us a temporary sense of self-esteem.

Are any of the following false assumptions operating in your belief system?

I will be secure if:
- I am in a loving relationship?
- I am never criticized?
- I am not rejected as a person?

How about your need for significance?

I will be significant if:
- I excel at school?
- I excel when my projects are promoted?
- When I have financial success?
- When I am granted recognition by my peer group?

We all want to have these needs met and we will expend considerable energy to meet them.  When we pour our energy into meeting our needs through pursuing false assumptions of what will meet those needs, we can be devastated when those assumptions don’t lead to lasting security and significance. What will happen is that we will feel pressed to pour energy in other directions based on another false assumption of what will meet our needs for security and significance.

Insecurity and insignificance

By the time I’d reached my teenage years I was aware of deep feelings of insecurity and insignificance. I remember clearly believing the false assumption that if I was a likeable person, I’d have meaningful personal relationships and I’d feel secure.  I remember working on my personality, altering what I said and did to please certain people.  Of course the problem with this approach is you have to keep changing your approach to suit different people.

During these years, as I was pursuing a degree to teach, I was financing part of my university expenses by teaching and performing classical dance in Toronto, Ontario.  In my amateur years I’d won many competitions.  Later I begun to teach out of province, as well as at the University of Toronto.  Teaching and especially performing was very exciting and gratifying for me.  I experienced strong feelings of significance by winning auditions, being involved in shows and receiving praise and admiration when my work was well done. The pay cheques were nice too.  I had found something I loved doing.  I apparently had talent and drive to do something that gave me rewards of significance and financial independence.

The significance, however, was not lasting.  I remember thinking about it during moments alone, after a successful show, after the reviews and the cast parties.  I was left with an emptiness, wondering, “Is this all there is to life?  Why am I not more fulfilled?”  There was a definite vacuum in my life that I couldn’t put my finger on.

What I have learned is this: seeking permanent security from imperfect people doesn’t work. We’re too concerned for our own needs of security to be truly selfless in helping another. And what I think will give me security is not always what the other person can give me. Seeking permanent significance from our accomplishments doesn’t have any lasting value and we’re left trying to accomplish more.

How do we obtain proper self-esteem?

It is possible to have proper self esteem as we’re rightly related to our creator, God. We were created with these deep needs for personal security and significance, and God designed the way to meet these needs.

God is the only One who knows me totally and loves me totally.  I never have to fear he’ll learn something about me that’s so bad that he’ll reject me.  God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” I don’t have to worry about what makes me acceptable in a relationship with God the way I do in human relationships.  God has seen me at my worst and still loves me.  That is a kind of security that no human relationship can afford me. We will never risk facing rejection from God.  God knows us totally and loves us totally.  And we don’t need to fear God’s rejection if we fail at an endeavour.

In fact, that is one of the reasons that God sent the person of Christ in the first place - to pay for the imperfection, the self centredness that causes distance between us and Him.  So, the primary solution to this question of how we achieve a proper sense of self esteem is to establish relationship with our creator, God.

How to maintain a well-balanced sense of self-esteem

If you’re like me, you can experience little setbacks in your sense of security and significance.  We need a way of handling those setbacks.  It all starts with our thinking.  The way we think largely determines the way we behave, and that’s why exercises that deal only with behavior bring short-term results.  We have to change our thinking and that will influence our behavior.  I’ve based my self worth on how I think I’m performing. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t work up to my highest standard, but it does mean I shouldn’t base my significance on that one thing.

So, how do I correct my train of thought?  I have to retrain myself to think what is true about me. I’m going to remember that I am a significant person to God and even if my job performance was off the mark today, God still loves me unconditionally.  He can even help me learn from this.  Although the examples change, the principles remain the same.  God never changes. His love for us remains the same.  This isn’t just positive thinking or a ‘band-aid’ solution.  This is right thinking - it’s a foundational solution.

So, we need to ensure that our relationship with God is intact, and then we need to pursue right thinking.  One way is with further study.  I always like to recommend two excellent studies related to this subject:

1. Transferable concepts – This is a set of individual topics called The Transferrable Concepts, by Campus Crusade for Christ.  They are extremely practical and very user friendly.
2. Behold your God – This study is Behold Your God by Myrna Alexander.  It is a very practical book directed to help women deal with daily situations in light of God’s character and help in their lives.

I had spent many years trying to fill that vacuum with many created things that didn’t ultimately meet my needs for security and significance.  But I recall the night I opened the door of my heart to God – I said a simple prayer asking Him to come into my life.

We will continue to make great strides in our professional lives, but we make a fundamental error if we think that our relationships and accomplishments can ultimately meet our deepest needs for security and significance.  Only our Creator can do that.  He longs to do that in each of our lives. The choice to allow Him to do this is ours.

God wants to be our leverage in living, empowering us to feel better about ourselves, more excited about our future, more grateful for those we love and more enthusiastic about our faith.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God has given you His Holy Spirit to help you live life according to His perfect plan.  Why not pray this simple prayer and by faith invite Him to fill you with His Spirit:

Dear Father, I need you.  I acknowledge that I have sinned against you by directing my own life.  I thank You that You have forgiven my sins through Christ’s death on the cross for me.  I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life.  Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled, and as You promised in Your Word that You would do if I asked in faith.  I pray this in the name of Jesus.  As an expression of my faith, I thank You for directing my life and for filling me with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Self-esteem is a human condition.

There’s a revolution going on. “It’s a revolution within”, so says author Gloria Steinem. In fact, that is the title of her bestseller, Revolution From Within: A Search for Self-Esteem. In her preface she writes “The more I talked to men as well as women, the more it seemed that inner feelings of incompleteness, emptiness, self-doubt and self-hatred were the same, no matter who experienced them, and even if they were expressed in culturally opposite ways.

As I have visited and worked in various parts of the world, I’ve found the same thing to be true. The area of self-esteem is increasingly being explored and many solutions are found wanting. Even though this subject elicits interest and results in an abundance of discussion and material, many of us continue to struggle with this area of our lives. I have heard it said “There are five billion people in the world. There are five billion people who struggle with self-esteem.” It is a human condition. Let’s examine what self-esteem is and look at various ways we attempt to gain it.

• What is self esteem?
  It is possible to have proper self-esteem as we are rightly related to our creator, God. We were created with these deep needs for personal security and significance and God designed a way to meet those needs when we are rightly related to Him.

• How do we obtain proper self-esteem?
  Taking an honest look at yourself is often the best way to evaluate where you are and where you want to go.

• How do we maintain a well-based sense of self-esteem?
  We need a way of handling the little day-to-day setbacks in our sense of security and significance. It all starts with our thinking. We have to retrain ourselves to think of what is true about me.

What is self esteem?

The most basic need all of us have is to have a sense of personal worth. This sense of personal worth has two elements: security and significance. Security means being loved and accepted just for who I am, regardless of what I do. This is what Gloria Steinem calls “core” self-esteem, and psychologists refer to as “global” self-esteem, being loved and accepted.

Significance means having meaning or purpose in my life, being adequate for what I do. Ms. Steinem refers to this as situational self-esteem. It’s knowing that we are good at what we do. The problem is that we develop a series of false assumptions of what we think will meet our needs for security and significance. We usually learn these assumptions in childhood. If we don’t experience unconditional love and acceptance as a child, we will experience pressure to have those needs met elsewhere. And if we aren’t given a sense of competency and significance in childhood, we will also experience pressure to meet that need elsewhere.

The proper formation of security in childhood–this “intrinsical value”–can be affected by many things, and abuse at many levels is a growing problem. Living with constant ridicule, contempt and negativity can affect a child’s security into adulthood. Perhaps you’ve overheard a parent criticizing a child. It’s not just the words that are used, but also the tone of voice that can deeply affect the child.

A child hearing this continually internalizes the words and tone, and they can become part of her view of herself. The tape in her mind plays the messages back as significant information learned from her parents. Some parents put enormous pressure on their children to perform. Children in these situations often grow up to be overachievers with the voice of their parents’ disapproval ringing in their ears. The child within is now inhabiting an adult body. What assumptions, as adult women in today’s world, do we hold on to?

As I mentioned, these basic assumptions are often begun as a child and are heavily influenced by our peer group. We can all develop wrong and false assumptions about how to have our needs met. The reason they are called false assumptions is because they do not give us unconditional love, acceptance, and firm significance in life. They give us a temporary sense of self-esteem.

Are any of the following false assumptions operating in your belief system?

I will be secure if:

• I am in a loving relationship
• I am never criticized
• I am not rejected as a person

How about your need for significance?

I will be significant if:

• I excel at school
• I excel when my projects are promoted
• When I have financial success
• When I am granted recognition by my peer group

Now, we as women all want to have these needs met and we will expend considerable energy to meet them. When we pour our energy into meeting our needs through pursuing false assumptions of what will meet those needs, we can be devastated when those assumptions don’t lead to lasting security and significance. What will happen is that we will feel pressed to pour energy in other directions based on another false assumption of what will meet our needs for security and significance.

By the time I’d reached my teenage years I was aware of deep feelings of insecurity and insignificance. I remember clearly believing the false assumption that if I was a likeable person, I’d have meaningful personal relationships and I’d feel secure. I remember working on my personality, altering what I said and did to please certain people. Of course the problem with this approach is you have to keep changing your approach to suit different people. During these years, as I was pursuing a degree to teach, I was financing part of my university expenses by teaching and performing classical dance in Toronto, Ontario. In my amateur years I’d won many competitions. Later I begun to teach out of province, as well as at the University of Toronto. Teaching and especially performing was very exciting and gratifying for me. I experienced strong feelings of significance by winning auditions, being involved in shows, and receiving praise and admiration when my work was well done. The pay cheques were nice too. I had found something I loved doing. I apparently had talent and drive to do, and something that gave me rewards of significance and financial independence.

The significance, however, was not lasting. I remember thinking about it during moments alone, after a successful show, after the reviews, and the cast parties. I was left with an emptiness, wondering “is this all there is to life? Why am I not more fulfilled?” There was a definite vacuum in my life that I couldn’t put my finger on.

What I have learned is this: seeking permanent security from imperfect people doesn’t work. We’re too concerned for our own needs of security to be truly selfless in helping another. And what I think will give me security is not always what the other person can give me. Seeking permanent significance from our accomplishments doesn’t have any lasting value, and we’re left trying to accomplish more.

How do we obtain proper self-esteem?

It is possible to have proper self-esteem as we’re rightly related to our creator, God. We were created with these deep needs for personal security and significance, and God designed the way to meet these needs.

God is the only One who knows me totally, and loves me totally. I never have to fear he’ll learn something about me that’s so bad that he’ll reject me. God says “I have loved you with an everlasting love” I don’t have to worry about what makes me acceptable in a relationship with God, the way I do in human relationships. God has seen me at my worst, and still loves me. That is a kind of security that no human relationship can afford me. We will never risk facing rejection from God. God knows us totally and loves us totally. And we don’t need to fear God’s rejection if we fail at an endeavour. In fact, that is one of the reasons that God sent the person of Christ in the first place – to pay for the imperfection, the self-centredness that causes distance between us and Him. So, the primary solution to this question of how we achieve a proper sense of self-esteem is to establish relationship with our creator, God.

How do we maintain a well-based sense of self-esteem?

If you’re like me, you can experience little setbacks in your sense of security and significance. We need a way of handling those setbacks. It all starts with our thinking. The way we think largely determines the way we behave, and that’s why exercises that deal only with behaviour bring short-term results. We have to change our thinking, and that will influence our behaviour. I’ve based my self-worth on how I think I’m performing. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t work up to my highest standard, but it does mean I shouldn’t base my significance on that one thing.

So, how do I correct my train of thought? I have to retrain myself to think what is true about me. I’m going to remember that I am a significant person to God, and even if my job performance was off the mark today, God still loves me unconditionally. He can even help me learn from this. Although the examples change, the principles remain the same. God never changes. His love for us remains the same. This isn’t just positive thinking or a “band-aid” solution. This is right thinking; it’s a foundational solution.

So, we need to ensure that our relationship with God is intact, and then we need to pursue right thinking. One way is with further study. I always like to recommend two excellent studies related to this subject.

One is a set of individual topics called The Transferrable Concepts, by Campus Crusade for Christ. They are extremely practical and very user-friendly. The other study is Behold Your God by Myrna Alexander. It is a very practical book directed to help women deal with daily situations in light of God’s character and help in their lives.

I had spent many years trying to fill that vacuum with many created things that didn’t ultimately meet my needs for security and significance. But I recall the night I opened the door of my heart to God – I said a simple prayer asking Him to come into my life.

As women, we will continue to make great strides in our professional lives, but we make a fundamental error if we think that our relationships and accomplishments can ultimately meet our deepest needs for security and significance. Only our Creator can do that. He longs to do that in each of our lives. The choice to allow Him to do this is ours.

You can have the peace that you are looking for; there is a way to balance your life. No one can be perfect, or have a perfect life. But every one of us has the opportunity to experience perfect grace through a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of woman you want me to be.

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised.

If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.

And Joshua said, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” (Joshua 3:5)

This is how Joshua addressed the people as he was preparing them to cross the river into the promised land. As you know, Moses had died and passed over the leadership to Joshua. Joshua went to the Lord, received his marching order, and when he gathered the people together, this was his command to them: “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

I like this verse because it clearly outlines our part and God’s part.

• Our part is to consecrate ourselves. We know that this means to set ourselves apart, to be wholly usable for God. In other words to have no unconfessed sin in our life, and to be clean vessels for Him to use. But the meaning of this command goes even deeper; it also means to compose our minds and hearts to hear from God, and obey. That’s my part. Usually I am rushing around too much to compose my heart and mind to listen to anything, least of all the Lord. I need to build that time into my life, to listen to Him, to read His word, to understand what He is saying to me, and then to be prepared to obey. That’s our part.

• God’s part is also very clear, “Tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” We know for sure that it’s not we ourselves who do the amazing things, for only God can do supernatural things. Only God can change the hearts of men and women. He promises to do it, and He promises to do it among us. He is giving us a ring side seat to watch what He is doing in the spiritual realm, and there is a correlation between the promise and the command that Moses gives.

As we are consecrated, as we are available for Him to use us, we will be able to watch Him do amazing things, but He will do them among us. So the question is, are you consecrated? Are you set apart for Him? Are you composing your heart and mind to hear what He says in His word, and then obey? If you are, get ready for some amazing things.

Self-esteem is a human condition.

There’s a revolution going on. “It’s a revolution within”, so says author Gloria Steinem. In fact, that is the title of her bestseller, Revolution From Within, a book about self-esteem. In her preface she writes “The more I talked to men as well as women, the more it seemed that inner feelings of incompleteness, emptiness, self-doubt and self-hatred were the same, no matter who experienced them, and even if they were expressed in culturally opposite ways.

As I have visited and worked in various parts of the world, I’ve found the same thing to be true. The area of self-esteem is increasingly being explored and many solutions are found wanting. Even though this subject elicits interest and results in an abundance of discussion and material, many of us continue to struggle with this area of our lives. I have heard it said “There are five billion people in the world. There are five billion people who struggle with self-esteem.” It is a human condition. Let’s examine what self-esteem is and look at various ways we attempt to gain it.

• What is self-esteem?
  It is possible to have proper self-esteem as we are rightly related to our creator, God. We were created with these deep needs for personal security and significance and God designed a way to meet those needs when we are rightly related to Him.
• How do we obtain proper self-esteem?
  Taking an honest look at yourself is often the best way to evaluate where you are and where you want to go.
• How do we maintain a well-based sense of self-esteem?
  We need a way of handling the little day-to-day setbacks in our sense of security and significance. It all starts with our thinking. We have to retrain ourselves to think of what is true about me.

What is self-esteem?

The most basic need all of us have is to have a sense of personal worth. This sense of personal worth has two elements: security and significance. Security means being loved and accepted just for who I am, regardless of what I do. This is what Gloria Steinem calls “core” self-esteem, and psychologists refer to as “global” self-esteem, being loved and accepted.

• Significance means having meaning or purpose in my life, being adequate for what I do. Ms. Steinem refers to this as situational self-esteem. It’s knowing that we are good at what we do. The problem is that we develop a series of false assumptions of what we think will meet our needs for security and significance. We usually learn these assumptions in childhood. If we don’t experience unconditional love and acceptance as a child, we will experience pressure to have those needs met elsewhere. And if we aren’t given a sense of competency and significance in childhood, we will also experience pressure to meet that need elsewhere.

• The proper formation of security in childhood–this “intrinsical value”–can be affected by many things, and abuse at many levels is a growing problem. Living with constant ridicule, contempt and negativity can affect a child’s security into adulthood. Perhaps you’ve overheard a parent criticizing a child. It’s not just the words that are used, but also the tone of voice that can deeply affect the child.A child hearing this continually internalizes the words and tone, and they can become part of her view of herself. The tape in her mind plays the messages back as significant information learned from her parents. Some parents put enormous pressure on their children to perform. Children in these situations often grow up to be overachievers with the voice of their parents’ disapproval ringing in their ears. The child within is now inhabiting an adult body. What assumptions, as adult women in the ’90s, do we hold on to?

As I mentioned, these basic assumptions are often begun as a child and are heavily influenced by our peer group. We can all develop wrong and false assumptions about how to have our needs met. The reason they are called false assumptions is because they do not give us unconditional love, acceptance, and firm significance in life. They give us a temporary sense of self-esteem.

• Are any of the following false assumptions operating in your belief system?
  I will be secure if:
  1. I am in a loving relationship
  2. I am never criticized
  3. I am not rejected as a person

• How about your need for significance?
  I will be significant if:
  1. I excel at school
  2. I excel when my projects are promoted
  3. When I have financial success
  4. When I am granted recognition by my peer group

Now, we as women all want to have these needs met and we will expend considerable energy to meet them. When we pour our energy into meeting our needs through pursuing false assumptions of what will meet those needs, we can be devastated when those assumptions don’t lead to lasting security and significance. What will happen is that we will feel pressed to pour energy in other directions based on another false assumption of what will meet our needs for security and significance.

By the time I’d reached my teenage years I was aware of deep feelings of insecurity and insignificance. I remember clearly believing the false assumption that if I was a likeable person, I’d have meaningful personal relationships and I’d feel secure. I remember working on my personality, altering what I said and did to please certain people. Of course the problem with this approach is you have to keep changing your approach to suit different people. During these years, as I was pursuing a degree to teach, I was financing part of my university expenses by teaching and performing classical dance in Toronto, Ontario. In my amateur years I’d won many competitions. Later I begun to teach out of province, as well as at the University of Toronto. Teaching and especially performing was very exciting and gratifying for me. I experienced strong feelings of significance by winning auditions, being involved in shows, and receiving praise and admiration when my work was well done. The pay cheques were nice too. I had found something I loved doing. I apparently had talent and drive to do, and something that gave me rewards of significance and financial independence.

The significance, however, was not lasting. I remember thinking about it during moments alone, after a successful show, after the reviews, and the cast parties. I was left with an emptiness, wondering “is this all there is to life? Why am I not more fulfilled?” There was a definite vacuum in my life that I couldn’t put my finger on.

What I have learned is this: seeking permanent security from imperfect people doesn’t work. We’re too concerned for our own needs of security to be truly selfless in helping another. And what I think will give me security is not always what the other person can give me. Seeking permanent significance from our accomplishments doesn’t have any lasting value, and we’re left trying to accomplish more.

How do we maintain proper self-esteem?

It is possible to have proper self-esteem as we’re rightly related to our creator, God. We were created with these deep needs for personal security and significance, and God designed the way to meet these needs.

God is the only One who knows me totally, and loves me totally. I never have to fear he’ll learn something about me that’s so bad that he’ll reject me. God says “I have loved you with an everlasting love” I don’t have to worry about what makes me acceptable in a relationship with God, the way I do in human relationships. God has seen me at my worst, and still loves me. That is a kind of security that no human relationship can afford me. We will never risk facing rejection from God. God knows us totally and loves us totally. And we don’t need to fear God’s rejection if we fail at an endeavor. In fact, that is one of the reasons that God sent the person of Christ in the first place – to pay for the imperfection, the self-centredness that causes distance between us and Him. So, the primary solution to this question of how we achieve a proper sense of self-esteem is to establish relationship with our creator, God.

How do we maintain a well-based sense of self-esteem?

If you’re like me, you can experience little setbacks in your sense of security and significance. We need a way of handling those setbacks. It all starts with our thinking. The way we think largely determines the way we behave, and that’s why exercises that deal only with behavior bring short-term results. We have to change our thinking, and that will influence our behavior. I’ve based my self-worth on how I think I’m performing. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t work up to my highest standard, but it does mean I shouldn’t base my significance on that one thing.

So, how do I correct my train of thought? I have to retrain myself to think what is true about me. I’m going to remember that I am a significant person to God, and even if my job performance was off the mark today, God still loves me unconditionally. He can even help me learn from this. Although the examples change, the principles remain the same. God never changes. His love for us remains the same. This isn’t just positive thinking or a “band-aid” solution. This is right thinking; it’s a foundational solution.

So, we need to ensure that our relationship with God is intact, and then we need to pursue right thinking. One way is with further study. I always like to recommend two excellent studies related to this subject.

1. One is a set of individual topics called The Transferrable Concepts, by Campus Crusade for Christ. They are extremely practical and very user-friendly.
2. The other study is Behold Your God by Myrna Alexander. It is a very practical book directed to help women deal with daily situations in light of God’s character and help in their lives.

I had spent many years trying to fill that vacuum with many created things that didn’t ultimately meet my needs for security and significance. But I recall the night I opened the door of my heart to God – I said a simple prayer asking Him to come into my life. (Check out crusade.org/fourlaws if you would like God to fill the vacum in your heart.

As women, we will continue to make great strides in our professional lives, but we make a fundamental error if we think that our relationships and accomplishments can ultimately meet our deepest needs for security and significance. Only our Creator can do that. He longs to do that in each of our lives. The choice to allow Him to do this is ours.

God wants to be our leverage in living, empowering us to feel better about ourselves, more excited about our future, more grateful for those we love and more enthusiastic about our faith.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God has given you His Holy Spirit to help you live life according to His perfect plan. Why not pray this simple prayer and by faith invite Him to fill you with His Spirit:

Dear Father, I need you. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you by directing my own life. I thank You that You have forgiven my sins through Christ’s death on the cross for me. I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled, and as You promised in Your Word that You would do if I asked in faith. I pray this in the name of Jesus. As an expression of my faith, I thank You for directing my life and for filling me with the Holy Spirit. Amen.