I hope I'm not alone in the internal conversation that I have most days.
I wish I looked more like...
If I only had this, I could be happy...
She's so much more confident/happy/intelligent/funny than I am...
And that doesn't include the adjectives that are a part of my normal internal conversation. I don't want to look at them in writing...So it seems that one of the first things I have to do is change the tone of the conversation. Here's what Paul had to say:
Romans 12
Living Sacrifices
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
I do think it's crystal clear what the world wants me to think of myself...Not. Good. Enough. I learned it in junior high school and it's a lesson that stuck.
How many women do you know who are really OK with who they are? I know a few who really appear to be happy with who they are. They don't obsess over flaws or, even worse, do their best to tear others down to lift themselves up. Of course, that's the outside. I can't hear the internal conversation or see the heart. And on good days, I can fake it too. I still know the energy that I spend telling myself what I can't do.
What I need to do is take that energy and tell myself and the world what God can do, what God will do.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
I'm pretty sure that's the key to it all.
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