SELF-ESTEEM AND PEAK PERFORMANCE

This post is based on a tape of part of a Jack Canfield seminar with the above title I found in the bunch of cassettes my friend gave me.

"All humans seek things which are loving, affirming, empowering, and validating."

Actually, all humans have this void inside them, the God-shaped hole if you like, which can only be filled with a right relationship with Jesus Christ.

Canfield mentions something about the government of California putting up signs to help build people's self-esteem. This would go some of the way towards explaining why that state is bankrupt today.

Says some things along the lines of Norman Vincent Peale's "power of possitive thinking." The correct flip-side to that is "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."

"We allwant to be recognised as lovable." Truth is, some of the time, and with a fair number of us, a lot of the time, we just aren't that lovable.

Canfield talks about something along the lines of "the God within", bringing in new age beliefs.

The problem with the self-esteem gospel is that it teaches people to think well of themselves when they haven't done anything to earn the right to feel good about themselves.

"Nobody can make you feel a certain way."

This isn't true. As much as we shouldn't let every unkind remark made about us affect our image of ourselves, words can truly hurt, despite the amount of inner strength someone may have.

Canfield mentions near-death experiences where people see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. We now know this is an effect on the brain when the body is about to die. A voice was then heard. Of course, adherents of different religions swore it was whatever god they happened to worship, thus having universalism come into play in Canfield's seminar. The subjects of the study were then asked if they had been prejudice toward anyone, thus bringing in the politically correct gospel where "intolerance" is the only sin.

"We all chose to be born into the circumstances we were born into."

Try telling that to one of the untouchables in India.

The above information is, of course, proven in a study using hypnosis, a faulty and unreliable method which also opens doors to Satan.

"We should accept ourselves for who we are."

No, we should turn to Christ (by repenting and being baptised for the remission of sins according to Acts 2 38) and allow Him to make us into the kinds of individuals He wants us to be.