A few days ago I was sitting down drinking my morning coffee and browsing through Youtube when I came across an old Kristina Kuzmic video. Now if you don't know who Kristina Kuzmic is, she's the lady who does all the funny truth bomb videos that sometimes pop up on your Facebook feed...and if you don't have facebook anymore (since apparently that's not cool anymore...per my teenage niece) well, you've probably seen her videos somewhere else (like Youtube!). Anyway, in this particular video she invites a few women into her home, meeting with them one at a time, and discussing with each of them the harsh things we all say to ourselves. The women share things like, "I feel like I am a bad mother" or "I am such a slob", all while admitting they really don't have a basis for saying these things to themselves and that they would never say such things to other people in their lives (meaning they wouldn't call other people "bad mom's" or "slobs"). Then she hands them each a picture of themselves as a child and asks if they would say those same things to the little girl looking back at them. One by one the women have this realization that they wouldn't talk to the little girl in the picture the way they talk to themselves, and yet that little girl still lives inside them. It's really powerful to watch (you can see it here).
As I finished the video, I couldn't help but start thinking about all the harsh things I say about and to myself. Not only that, but also how much I actually believe what I am saying to myself even though I have no proof to back it up. For example, I tend to reprimand myself with the phrase, "You're so stupid" or "You're such an idiot." I have said things like that to myself since I was little even though I have never failed any course and I seem to be able to hold intellectual conversations with most people. Don't get me wrong, I have had my fair share of academic struggles and misunderstandings in life, but I have never had a real reason to believe that I am stupid. Yet I believed I was..and so it was easy to call myself out for being so when I felt frustrated. It actually took me until this year when I graduated with my degree with a 4.0 GPA that I even began to challenge this idea of being stupid and began to think that maybe I actually am smart. It seems every day I seem to let go a little of this lie and hold onto the truth a little bit more. But the truth... it takes work... I have to put in the effort of constantly reminding myself of the truth and to look at the body of evidence available to me to believe the truth. And I think the same thing goes for every lie we believe.
In fact, at the beginning of this year I started attending my very first community group and one thing the leaders talked about a lot was replacing the lies we believe with the truth of God's word. At first, I kind of thought this was a bogus concept...repeating Bible verses to yourself seemed nothing more than a Stuart Smalley Daily Affirmation Sketch (not that I've ever actually watched Saturday Night Live, except on Youtube). Anyway, it wasn't until recently when I actually decided to just try it for myself. I had been struggling with some pretty serious anxiety and literally was fearing getting out of bed some mornings when two bible verses popped into my head. The first was "For God has not given you a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). And the second was, "The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7). At first, I just started repeating those words to myself, then I started praying them...as if to remind God and myself of His promises. I've done this for weeks now, and you know what? I didn't notice it right away, but my anxiety has started to fade. That's not to say that now I am cured...cause I don't think God has worked it like that. Instead, in those moments when I feel anxiety welling up inside of me, I feel like I have this tool to take me to Jesus and let him calm my spirit. And when I do, things get better. Its like, in those moments, the lies that tell me I am always going to be anxious, and I have so many things to fear in life, are overcome by the truth... the truth that this is not the way I was created, that in Christ I have the power and the ability to overcome anything that comes my way, and that His peace guards me in all things.
Now, I don't want you to think like I did, that this is all some sort of hocus pocus.... like if you just say the right words at the right time for a specific amount of days then magically things change. It's not like that. This is actually something much deeper and so much bigger. This is God setting the record straight. This is allowing God to take back what the enemy has tried to steal from us! Truth...specifically the Truth of God, can set us all free...and no matter what you struggle with, no matter what lies you believe, there's a promise of God for you! All you need to do is remind yourself of His truth and allow the power of the Word of God transform you and your life! So maybe for you, it's looking at the video I referenced above and considering what harsh lies you tell yourself. And then maybe it means cracking open God's word and allowing Him to show you the truth. There's a little girl (or in case your a male reading this...boy) inside of all of us and she (he) deserves to hear the truth! Discover it and speak it over yourself!
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