The Self Esteem of Coffee

 

I was teaching the youth group boys about the "lie of self esteem". I used an analogy about coffee to help illustrate my point. I got some of this idea from Darla talking about microwaving her coffee when it cooled. It went something like this.

Bad Analogy time. If you can imagine a cup of coffee with sentience, having thoughts and feelings.

I am behind the coffee bar. I pull a shot of espresso to the correct amount and the right amount of time. I steam the milk to the correct temperature. Maybe I add a little syrup. I pour the milk into the espresso and make a little latte art, a rosetta. I had the cup over and the person loves and comments on the look and the flavor. The cup of coffee feels good about itself. Its a hot, good looking, tasty cup of coffee. In that particular moment and situation, the cup believes it is a good cup of coffee because of what someone commented about it. Maybe that person likes it so much they take a picture of it and post it on social media talking about how good the cup was. Now that cup has a very high self esteem.

I make another latte, pull the shot, steam the milk and pour a little art. I perform the exact same steps to create a latte. This time, the person that takes it is busy working in the children's ministry. The hurry off to set up the room. They set the cup down. Slowly the cup begins to cool. As it cools, it begins to lose its flavor. Maybe that person even takes a sip, sets it down again and continues to work. This cup is now starting to feel down on itself. It doesn’t taste as good as it should. It is cold. Because of that particular moment and situation, that cup of coffee had a low self esteem. Maybe, that person who had the cup of coffee does not like its taste, it's no longer good enough for them. So they place it in a microwave to warm it up. The cup now has a very low self esteem because someone thought it was not good enough.

In both scenarios, the cup of coffee based its self esteem on outside influences and the situation it was in. What they needed to do was to look back at their creator and realize that they were both lovingly made equally. It only matters what the creator thinks of the cups of coffee, not what others think of them, not what is happening to them in that one moment in time. That is a bad analogy of how self esteem works and how it only really matters what God, our Creator thinks about us.