Christ Esteem

Raymond Corsini tells a story about a counseling session he had with an inmate in a prison. He had one session with this man and did not see him again. Four years later, as this inmate was being released, he came to say goodbye. The inmate said “Dr. Corsini, I want to thank you for changing my life.” Corsini, who barely remembered him because he had only one session with him said, “How did I change your life?” The man said, “You told me that I was intelligent. All my life I’ve been told that I was stupid. That’s all I heard when I was growing up. But since you’ve told me the truth my life has change. I now have my GED, I’m being released from prison and I have hope for a bright future.”* Some psychologists teach that what people need is healthy self esteem. I believe self esteem is important but not sufficient. What we really need is Christ esteem.** When you have Christ esteem your search for self esteem ends because you know Jesus loves you and accepts you. His death on the cross proves that you are important to him. ____________________________ *Corsini, R., Wedding, D (2005). Current Psychotherapies 7th ed. Brooks/Cole ** Matzat, D (1991). Christ-Esteem. Harvest House Publishers. Eugene, OR