What do you think about yourself? How do you view the real you? When you look into the mirror, what are you thinking? Do you think things like, youre a winner, Im proud of you, I love you, and I believe in you. Or, are you thinking things like, youre a failure, youre stupid, or youre ugly? What things do you say to yourself on a regular basis? Self-talk is vital! We spend more time with ourselves than anyone else in the world. Thats why we have to be our own best friend. We live in a fallen world and theres already too much in life that is against us anyway. We dont need to be beating up on ourselves too. You may find it easy to speak garbage to yourself because maybe thats all youve heard all your life. Those tapes in your brain just keep playing over and over. You may feel completely worthless because of all that. But, you are NOT worthless! God created you in His image, and with a purpose. God is perfect in all His ways and does not make junk. We tend to kick ourselves when we do something stupid because we feel like a failure. But, a friend never kicks a friend when he's down. Why should you kick yourself? There is never an excuse to put yourself down! Besides, failure is an event, not a person! Let it be known that there is an enemy who is like a roaring lion that roams around seeking whom he may devour (John 10:10). He doesn't need any help. A lot of us havent heard positive things from our parents, family, or those weve spent a lot of time around. So, what we werent able to get from them, we have to give to ourselves. Look in the mirror. Tell yourself that you really and truly love yourself and that you really and truly forgive yourself for all of your shortcomings. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. After all, you are only human. Tell yourself that you believe in yourself. Youre gonna make it and God is on your side, and if God is for you, who can be against you (Romans 8:31)! It will feel really awkward for a while until you get used to hearing and seeing yourself speak to yourself this way, but it works. Your self-esteem will improve dramatically! Most people dont realize that a lot of the reason why we feel the way we feel is because of the way we think. Our thoughts produce our feelings. You will obviously perform much better when you feel good about yourself than if you keep thinking youre a failure. If were ever going to be successful in life we must love ourselves. We must feel deserving of success in order to have it and enjoy it. We must be our own best friend and love ourselves before we can love anyone else (Mark 12:31). Besides, God loves you, why shouldn't you? |
