Colossians 3:18-4:1 could well be titled, “How to Have a Full, Rich Family Life.” The text contains three sets of exhortations: verses 18 and 19 to wives and husbands, verses 20 and 21 to children and parents, 3:22-4:1 to servants and masters.

Colossians 3:18, 19 is patently domestic. It has to do with home, specifically a Christian home. Moreover, it has to do with the relationship between a Christian husband and a Christian wife. As such, it has nothing to say about men’s and women’s roles in society, such as the marketplace or politics. There are other texts which give us some guidance in these areas, but we do Scripture a great disservice by applying it where it was never intended. The teaching here is for Christians who want to live as Christians within the home and experience all the fullness God intended for them. It is teaching which is much needed today when marriage has fallen into disrepute, as with the seven-year-old girl who had just seen the movie Cinderella and was testing her neighbor lady’s knowledge of the story. The neighbor, anxious to impress the little girl, said, “I know what happens at the end.” “What?” asked the girl. “Cinderella and the prince live happily ever after.” To which the little girl answered, “Oh no, they didn’t. They got married!” It was totally innocent, unwitting cynicism. But others are more calculated, like the famous literary figure William Congreve who wrote, “Every man plays the fool once in his life, but to marry is playing the fool all of one’s life.”

There are few things heavier than cloud of dark depression. Depression affects young people, middleaged, and the elderly. It descends upon the rich and the poor, educated and uneducated, professional and non-professional, male and female, married and single alike. Oftentimes even strong believers who are deepening their walk with Christ will experience periods of dark depression.

The following sections are comprised from four articles written by Dr. Ed Welch and published in the Journal of Biblical Counseling. Dr. Welch is a member of the counseling faculty at the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation as well as an adjunct professor in practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. He has published several books including: Blame it on the Brain; Depression: A Stubborn Darkness; Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave; and, When People are Big and God is Small. For our purposes we will use excerpts from Dr. Welch’s articles to help us understand what depression is and how to glorify God in the midst of it.

Not only are these words abundant in number, but they saturate the way we think about life. They influence the way we think about the goal of life, the function of relationships, how to parent, what the church is about, why Jesus came, and a myriad of other things. This is why it is imperative we understand what the Bible actually tells us to do with self.

The question we will strive to answer is, “Does low self-esteem cause our problems in life or is low self- esteem an effect/cause of our problems?” In other words, should we try to solve our problems by raising our self-esteem, or would that effort only increase our problems, or distract us from a more pertinent solution?