Our words
have the power to build up or tear down—whether we’re talking to someone else
or to ourselves. {Tweet this}
We don’t
like to hurt someone’s feelings, but what about our own feelings? Why are we
often harder on ourselves, telling ourselves things we would never say to
someone else?
Our words
and thoughts work together, and they have power. Our thoughts fuel what we tell
ourselves and our words embed negative thoughts in our minds. And we begin to
believe them without question.
The enemy
loves this because it makes his work easier. When we tear ourselves down we are
more vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. His lies are harder to identify because the
negative thought pattern is already there.
The words we speak set the tone of our attitudes and our environment. – Danise Jurado, Fulfilled
Do you know
someone who is always putting herself down? Do you enjoy being around her or do
you find it exhausting? When our negative thoughts and words become habit, that
behavior will come out around others. They will be able to see what we think of
ourselves and hear how we speak to ourselves.
Think about
how you talk to yourself. Would you want others to hear you? And what would
they think?
God knows
everything and still He showers us with grace. As we receive His grace, we need
to give ourselves some grace too. We can retrain our minds to think differently
and replace the lies with God’s truth.
Remember the
advice, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all? It applies
to ourselves too. If you look in the mirror and can’t say something nice about
yourself, walk away. When you look again, make an intentional effort to say one
nice thing about yourself. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is. What
matters is changing the way we think about, and speak to, ourselves.
The first
step doesn’t have to be a big one, there just needs to be a first step.
*****
If you are reading Fulfilled by Danise Jurado with us, we are in week 3
with Chapter 4—Breaking Free and Chapter 5—Change. Danise offers good practical
steps for breaking free from the chains that keep us from spiritual freedom and
for making change where we see change needs to be made.
Identifying the lies we’ve been told or
believed for a long time can be difficult. They can be so engrained that they
seem normal to us. But as we look to God’s Word for His Truth, we find these
thoughts don’t line up with what God says. There have been times when I had to
think back (sometimes way back) to discover when it became a “normal” thought.
Maybe it was because it was said to me repeatedly or from a past mistake or
failure. For me, finding the source of that thought helped to diffuse the power
it held over me. And without that power, I could work on letting it go.
What has helped you identify and diffuse
lies that seemed like “normal thoughts?”
In Christ,
Laura
Linking up with Everyday Jesus, Grace & Truth, Thought Provoking Thursday, Blessing Counters, Faith Filled Friday
