A new sanctuary… as I stated previously, I’ve been in a constant season of change for several months now. Never could I have imagined so much unprecedented joy could come alongside some of the deepest pain I’ve ever experienced. I’m praying that I have entered a season of stability, as I’m finding it difficult to let my guard down. But even in this, God always makes a way. He has blessed me with a very understanding and supportive husband who calms the troubled waters, a sister who walks beside me and helps me remember that the answer to life’s challenges is always God, and blue water to float on when I want to think.

One thing many of us battle day in and day out is a negative self-image. When you go through much of your life feeling as though you are never good enough, it is very difficult to learn to believe otherwise. We spend so much of our brain power buying into the lie, the part of our brain that can buy into the truth gets tiny and weak. When the truth is something positive, or even (dare I say it???) GOOD, we immediately dismiss it as not true because the lie has already overridden our reality.

Basically, when you believe the lie long enough, the truth becomes the impossible to believe. That only holds true, of course, when we choose to continue to accept the lies as the only possibility. The minute we begin to put an honest effort into seeing ourselves as God sees as, and as we see each other, that is the minute the grip of the lies begin to loosen.

“Because he set his love on Me, therefore I will save him; I will set him [securely] on high, because he knows My name [he confidently trusts and relies on me, knowing I will never abandon him, no, never]. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.” Psalms 91:14-15 AMP

We worry a lot about how other people will see us. We often feel we are lost in the “too’s” somewhere…we’re too heavy, too old, too young, too pale, too thin, too too too too too. ARGHHHHHHH!!! What we think others see is rarely accurately assumed. For example, I sit in church on Sunday, and as I look around the chapel, I see beautiful faces. I see kindness and humor. I see generosity and caring. I see the love of Christ all around me. There is nothing more beautiful than that! Still, I know many of those very same people are feeling self-conscious because they don’t like how their hair looks, or about their weight (guilty!), or about how inadequate they feel (guilty again!) for whatever they are facing.

Regardless of the story we’re telling ourselves, we need to start accepting the probability that we aren’t as awful as we think we are…