Sticks and stones...

During worship at church this week the pastor asked us to privately confess to God the areas with which we were struggling.  To give up the things that were pinning us down.   As I sat there thinking I couldn't come up with anything.  Now, I'm by no means perfect but what I mean is I didn't have anything huge hanging over me; nothing gnawing at the pit of my stomach. So instead I just thanked Jesus for all the things that are good in my life right now.  But there was this little voice in the back of my head, you know the one that tells you "Yeah, just wait, it's coming."  It sounds a lot like Satan.

Well, it came. It came in someone else's unkind opinion of me and it crushed me. Soon I found I was letting this person's opinion seep into every part of who I thought I was and before I knew it my opinion of myself was undoubtedly worse than their opinion of me.  So I had a decision to make, I could continue to let my thoughts ride this crazy train and fall into a pit of depression and anxiety or I could pull the brake.

I wanted to pull the brake and so I asked for prayer from my husband a few close friends.  Then I dug into the truth.  

"Don't be afraid, I've redeemed you. I've called your name, you're mine.

I'd sell off the whole world to get you back,

trade the creation just for you."

{excerpts taken from Isaiah 43:1-4 MSG}

"I am leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. 

I don't leave you the way you are used to be being left - feeling abandoned, bereft. 

So don't be upset. Don't be distraught." 

John 14:27 MSG

"If you find the godless world hating you, remember it got it's start hating me. 

If you lived on the world's terms, the world would love you as one of it's own.

But since I have picked you to live on God's terms 

and no longer on the world's terms,the world is going to hate you."

John 15:18-19 MSG

I find myself internally chanting "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." But that's simply not true. Words do hurt. But they also bring me to a decision to make: will I believe other's opinions of me or will I believe God's opinion of me?

Words may hurt me, but they won't define me. Only God's opinion can do that.