Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Self -control vs. Self-esteem

Primarily I started this blog to share pictures and the goings on of our family, but this caught my eye and I wanted to share. I'd love to hear what you have to say on the matter.

In the March 2007 Better Homes and Gardens I bought for .10 at the Library, there is a small article entitled, "Making Good Adults". Basically it talks about the self-esteem movement of raising children and how it doesn't work.

"So if self-esteem isn't the answer, what is? "My advice would be to forget about self-esteem and concentrate on self-control," Baumeister says. He defines self-control as "being able to resist temptation, control your impulses, focus your thoughts, and perform up to your capacity."

This caught my attention, I think, because I believe that this is what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches us.

Resisting temptation: word of wisdom, chastity, morally clean
Controlling your impulses: same as above, fasting
Focusing your thoughts: keeping them clean, "I am a child of God"
Performing up to your capacity: service, magnifying your callings, better wives, mothers, husbands, fathers, children, etc.

I'm sure you could come up with more correlations.

4 comments:

Cindy Singleton said...

So good to see you blogging! I've subscribed to your blog and look forward to keeping up with your family!

I actually think self control and self esteem are separate and are both important. Someone can control themselves and not feel like they're a valuable person. I think the Church teaches both very well and I agree with your correlations. Being taught that we are children of God and that He loves each of us individually does a lot for self esteem.

Melanie said...

I think the two go hand in hand. If you have honerable self control then you're going to have a higher self esteem.

Diane said...

I loved your blog. I read my brothers/sisters blogs all the time, and so I'll try and keep up on yours. I agree with your assessment on the self control/self esteem. You're right on.
I liked the picture of you and John, it looks like you're both happy. I liked your review of Ella Enchanted. I read it, and my kids have all read it, and I liked the movie too. There's another one I just read, but I can't remember the title, so I'll ask Carrie and get back to you.

Diane said...

I loved your blog. I read my brothers/sisters blogs all the time, and so I'll try and keep up on yours. I agree with your assessment on the self control/self esteem. You're right on.
I liked the picture of you and John, it looks like you're both happy. I liked your review of Ella Enchanted. I read it, and my kids have all read it, and I liked the movie too. There's another one I just read, but I can't remember the title, so I'll ask Carrie and get back to you.