What Do You Think of Me? Why Do I Care? by Ed Welch

In an increasingly unstable culture, being obsessed with what others think is an escalating struggle among teens and young adults, leading to more serious consequences than ever before. Although everyone—whether they’re sixteen or sixty—works hard to win someone’s approval or ward off someone’s rejection, these issues plague teenagers and young adults with particular intensity. And how teens and young adults answer the big questions of their lives now will affect the direction of their adult lives for better or worse. In his new book, What Do You Think of Me? Why Do I Care?: Answers to the Big Questions of Life (New Growth Press, October 2011), Edward T. Welch extends hope to those weary of hiding behind a mask of performance in order to gain love and acceptance.



Peer pressure, codependency, shame, low self-esteem—these are just some of the words used to identify how young people can be controlled by the perceived opinions of others. Stand out in the right way to the right people, and you’re on top of the world. But experience failure in front of those same people and prepare for a sinking sensation in your stomach and a night of tossing and turning.


Why do you care? Why do we all care? These are questions that can’t be answered without listening to God, the One who made us and knows us better than we know ourselves.In What Do You Think of Me? Why Do I Care?Welch takes the big questions of life and shows that freedom from what people think of us comes as we learn who God is and who we are in relationship to Him. Only then will we be able to let go of our masks, stop trying to fill our leaky love cups and begin to live for something bigger than ourselves.


An interactive book, What Do You Think of Me? Why Do I Care? includes questions throughout the text for individual or group study and is especially aimed at teenagers and young adults. A corresponding website rich with controversy and dialogue, My-Big-Life-Question.com, will also offer readers a place to discuss personal needs as well as to find other resources for life’s journey and places to go for help.

My review:
Though this was written and geared for teenagers, this is a book that anyone struggling with self esteem issues could benefit from reading.

The author did a great job of addressing esteem issues and self worth. He comes from a Christian standpoint, and deals a lot with how God views us. He doesn't do a bunch of psycho babble, but really has some good advice and good things to say. There are questions throughout the book that make the reader think and get more involved in the book. This would be a great book for anyone struggling with self esteem issues, and for anyone not necessarily dealing with that. We can all use a reminder of our value to God.

About the author:

Edward T. Welch recalls two spiritual turning points in his life. The first he pinpoints as the month after his graduation from college, before entering graduate school, when his plans for his future made a complete shift. A shift for which he has been grateful ever since. In that month, he determined to complete a simple task—to read the Bible in its entirety. It was that "simple" undertaking which brought him to a deep understanding of the power of scripture. For the first time, he grasped the relevance of scripture to the simple details of our lives. God, he realized, was speaking through this book. All his plans changed, and he entered the Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania.


The next turning point came during his second year in seminary when he began to study counseling and was given the opportunity to observe an actual counseling session. "That first hour of being placed on the front lines of counseling redirected my life," he tells us. "In that moment I saw the Bible as alive, and I knew that I wanted people to feel understood by scripture."

After graduating from seminary in 1978, Ed went on to study at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he received a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology (Neuropsychology) in 1981. He currently serves as counselor, faculty member and director of the School of Biblical Counseling at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation and as professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary.

Ed is deeply devoted to his wife, Sheri, and his two daughters and their husbands, all of whom live close by in the Philadelphia area. The family has traveled yearly to the west coast to visit relatives and enjoy water sports at the beach.

What Do You Think of Me? Why Do I Care? is available from New Growth Press.

Thanks to B&B Media for the review copy.