Everybody at some point, has felt the mixture of horrible feelings that accompanies low self-esteem/lack of confidence. It causes unsettling feelings of anxiety, doubt, depression, fear, worthlessness etc.
Sometimes its hard to even detect what caused it in the first place. It could've been a critisism or a failure which started the thought process, and then it seems like we're all too ready to apply this attitude of 'worthlessness' to every area of our lives and say 'I knew it all along, I'm crap at everything!'
I remember a preacher asking once, 'During the day, who do you talk to the most?' The immediate answer that springs to mind when a preacher asks you that is 'God'... but that wouldn't be true, and he said.. 'it's yourself. The person you talk to the most is yourself. Now consider the content of the conversation.'
And really, it's appalling. I would never talk to another person, the way a talk to myself. From the time we wake up, to the time we go to sleep, we could go the entire day without saying one kind word to oursleves. Now don't get me wrong here, i don't go around all day critisising myself out loud or shouting at myself in the mirror, lol... but without realising it we do talk to oursleves all day, just in the form of thoughts.
For example, when we look in ther mirror do we think 'Damn i'm looking good today' or do we think 'look how many spots I've got, and not to mention my belly. I've got more rolls than a bakery!'
But it goes deeper than outward appearence. Thoughts like 'I'm not tough enough, not clever enough', or 'i'm not interesting/funny enough' bombard our heads. 'You're too quiet, too clumsy, too emotional..'
'You're just not good enough!' we tell ourselves. These thoughts erode away our confidence, and everytime we think these things they become that little bit more easy to believe. Each time, they become that little bit more true...
Proverbs 23:7 says 'As a man thinketh, so is he.' The image i get in my head when i think about this is.. as we think negative thoughts about oursleves, its like we're binding oursleves. When we say, 'I'm useless', its like putting chains on our hands, therefore making us useless because our hands are bound. When we say 'I'm stupid/ I'm such an idiot', we put chains around our mind, limiting our abilty - leaving talents/gifts laying dorment and unused. When we think that what we have to say doesn't matter, that our opinion/thoughts are unimportant, that we won't make a difference..it's like putting a gag in our mouth.
Now the way I see it.. your potential never dissappears, it just gets bound. And thats how you become what you think..
Perhaps just consider for a moment that your unspoken words (held back because of doubt in yourself and the belief that what you have to say doesn't matter) could be the very words that a person in your life needs to hear. Perhaps there's somebody who needs help, but your hands are bound, so you become useless. I believe that everyone has got something to offer- a gift/talent.. But when we convince ourselves that we havn't, its stays hidden, and no-one (including yourself) ever sees it.
I remember this one day, I can't even remember exactly when or even where if i'm honest, but probebley years ago, I remember having this sudden awareness that God was... well, the only way i can describe it is 'hurt' because of the way I thought about myself. I was constantly critisising myself.. the person that He had planned, designed and created. And I was humbled because here I was.. little old Rhiannon from a little town called Neath, evaluating myself and saying.. 'God, you did a crap job.' Obviously unintentionally, but that is basically the message I was giving..
'It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.' ~Author Unknown
So if its our thoughts that can bind us.. its our thoughts that can free us too.. as long as we think differently...
Sometimes we need to stop telling ourselves that we're useless, stupid, ugly, boring or unimportant etc.. and tell ourselves that we're clever, beautiful,/handsome, useful and important, therefore freeing the potential that was previously bound..
"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely." — Roald Dahl
'Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.' ~Michel de Montaigne
So even if you feel like the little vunerable kitten in the image at the top, perhaps full of self-doubt.. tell yourself you're a lion full of purpose, potential and courage.. and the lion is what you'll become...
