Call it Like You See it

The other day I read that if you tell yourself you are a runner, you are more likely to lace up your jogging shoes and put it into action. How simple is this statement, yet how deeply profound can we let it be? What if I adopted it and let it sink into every crevice of my life? What if I applied it to areas I sell myself short on daily?

If you tell yourself you are a good housekeeper, you are more likely to pick up a dust rag. If you tell yourself that you are a good friend, you are more likely to dial the phone. If you tell yourself you are a good cook, you are more likely to try out new recipes. If you tell yourself you have a good prayer life, you are more likely to approach the throne more often.

I think that many of us, myself listed as offender #1, have a constant conversation in our heads telling ourselves all the things we are not good at. I know that as a classroom teacher, the students lived up to my expectations of them. So, if I expected too little, I got little. Is this the cycle we create? We expect to fail and then are not shocked when that happens. What if we turned that idea of our own world on its axis. What if we told ourselves that we were something? Maybe we would become it.

This is not about lying to myself. I have no desire to be a triathlete or to host a talk show. I know my limitations. However, sometimes I expect too many results from myself while the talk in the back of my head is saying that I am not very good at it anyway. I am slicing my insides with a double edged sword that I have no shield for.

I am in the middle of a Beth Moore study. This week is all about believing I am who God says I am. I am loved, blessed, chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, and forgiven. What if these were the words that were running around in my head when I thought of who I am? What would it look like to people on the outside if those were the words rumbling around on the inside? What if who I am in God's eyes was my shield from my own damning talk? God sees the beginning and then end, and He still chose me. I am not finished yet, no, my story is not over.

So, my desire is to know God more. My desire is to live the fruits of the spirit. My desire is to seek Truth and find it. This week is about seeking the truth about me. God has revealed it through His Word and through His still soft voice. I am listening to my own voice telling me that I am what I want to be: A lover of the Word, an intercessor, a loving wife and mother, a good friend, someone with wisdom to share, and someone who's greatest desire is to see my friends and family become a part of the Kingdom.

Oh Lord, shape me so that my life on the outside mirrors those words You have placed on the inside.

He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God. 

Romans 4: 20-25 (The Message)