Thursday, June 27, 2019

Fear, Anxiety and That One Toxic Person You Know...the road to live #bebrave


Words.

They have the power to bring LIFE and WHOLENESS.

They have the power to bring ANXIETY and PAIN.

But...God's Words.

God's Words to me, about me, change EVERYTHING!

God's Words help me step into courage.

Confidence.

#bebrave.

XXXXX

I have known this gal for 45+++++ years.

A wonderful woman - generous, hospitable, funny, good.

She has been a role model in so many ways.

I've looked up to her, loved her, learned from her...

...but, she is just so stupid!

WAIT! WAIT!!!! WAIT!

Don't stop reading there.

I've never thought of my friend as stupid.

NEVER!

But, if I've heard her say it about herself once, I've heard it thousands of times.

Almost every time I'm with her, in fact!

I'm convinced she's convinced that this is TRUTH.

Stupid (see definition below thanks to Merriam-Webster):

Key words: lack of intelligence, ignorant, brainless, dull-witted, foolish, slow, empty-headed...

This is definitely not a description of the person to whom I'm referring!

Hypothetically speaking, if I had said the above statement posted in bold, italicized-red, you most assuredly would have been appalled at my audacity and MEANNESS!

You would have called me rude;

you just might have decided never to look at another blog-post of mine....EVER!

Yet, day after day, minute after minute, we fall prey to mean-talk!


How?

We allow our minds to talk this way about ourselves, and we are never appalled.

Most of the time we wholeheartedly agree.

We have a knack of convincing ourselves that statements like this are true.

Maybe it's not the S-word (we told our kiddos as they were growing up that "stupid" was a bad word...it was never allowed to cross their lips about ANYONE or ANYTHING).

Maybe it's other-words... words like I'm: ugly, fat, useless, unlovable, not good enough, unable, a looser, ______________ (fill in the blank).

Regardless of how you fill in the blank above, these are examples of words that exponentially increase our ANXIETY LEVELS in huge doses!

And, there is just NO NEED...

XXXX

The big buzz these days is all about removing toxic people from our lives, walking away, setting up healthy boundaries.

BUT, what about the toxic person who lives inside our minds?

Seriously!?!

Because here's the problem: that little person who has made his/her home up in our minds is sure to disrupt the peace of our hearts!

The only way to eliminate that toxic person is to hand them completely over to the Spirit of God for radical transformation...

The only way to rid ourselves of this kind of anxiety is to apply a prescription of Philippians 4:7-9:


Today's challenge:
Begin a 40-day word fast.

Declare WAR!!!

It won't be easy.

When you begin to hear yourself say those ugly, anxiety-driven-words, STOP! 

Then, say out loud (shout them if necessary) God-Words...

Think on these things:

Words that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.

You'll soon see how often you set yourself up for a disruption of peace...
...and, you'll see how making one little change can make a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!


PS. I'm not really a fan of the concept of "boundaries language" regarding "toxic" people (it can become such a weapon, instead of a tool)...but I am a fan of who the Holy Spirit says we are through those He breathed forth words to place in His Word.

May we hang tightly to the Spirit of God, and simply ignore the rest.



"Living loved isn’t deciding in your mind, 'I deserve to be loved.'


It’s settling in your soul, “I was created by a God who formed me because He so very much loved the very thought of me. When I was nothing, He saw something and declared it good. Very good. And very loved.” 
Lsya Terkeurst. 


Read that to yourself during your 40 Day Word Fast...
Over and over...
Just try it.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Such a powerful message and profound truth!

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  2. Peg... you are truly a blessing! So powerful and encouraging. Thank you. So much. I'm going to share this with my 15 year old daughter and 22 year old son. And my family and my friends and my neighbors and strangers and anyone else who will read it, lol. Thanks be to God for choosing such a faithful servant.

    ReplyDelete