We just finished the Thanksgiving weekend and most of us no doubt, had much to be thankful for and enjoyed the time with our family and friends. I said most. Not long ago, I was speaking with a teenager who didn’t seem to be very thankful for much of anything.
If you are one that believes in the notion that life is not fair, one could say that life had not been fair to this kid. In fact, life had pretty much wiped out any self confidence that he ever had. Discouragement, frustration, ridicule, pick a word. They all have applied at some time.
The unfortunate truth of this story is that he is just one of thousands of kids in this country that deals with low self-esteem. The why is not really important, because to be honest with you, nothing in our society is going to change any time soon that will eliminate this issue.
There will always be that percentage of kids that are viewed as different and as much as we consider ourselves as people that are accepting of anyone, the truth is we don’t. And then we pretend that the kid’s don’t notice, that they are making the choice to be different, that it’s their fault. Maybe they are just trying something new because nobody accepted who they were before.
We all know this kid. For some of us, they might even live in our house. My question is what are you doing to make their world a better place? What are you doing to help them believe in themselves? Do you even believe in them at all?
So why am I writing this? Partly because I care about this kid and partly because I care about all these kids. I used to have the mentality of “suck it up” and “if you aren’t willing to help yourself, why should anyone else.” But I have seen what happens when the belief that you don’t have any value becomes reality. No one deserves to be in that place.
One of the topics I have spoken on in the John Maxwell Team YouthMax program is self esteem. It is one of the four greatest threats to our kids today. No self esteem turns into no hope and without hope, well there is no hope. You have a chance today to be that hope for that kid. You can believe in them so they will in turn believe in themselves and begin the healing process.
A good friend of mine, Kary Oberbrunner, is hosting a special call on December 5th to discuss how we can provide hope. Kary has done a significant amount of work on the issues of self-esteem, self-injury and anti-bullying. You can find out more about this “5 Candles” event by clicking here.
Make today a day that will change the life of one of these kids. You just may be the only one that can provide them the hope they are so desperately looking for.
**********************************************************************
Don’t miss a single post from Building What Matters by subscribing at the top left of this page.
Help support us by clicking here and Liking our facebook page
Barry Smith www.buildingwhatmatters.com 11/26/12
Photo courtesy of www.karyoberbrunner.com
