“Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Remember that saying? What do you think about that saying today?
Do you hear the voices of your past telling you that you are not worth knowing or caring about? Were you told you were a loser? Did you feel like you were never good enough; like you were on the outside looking in? Do you feel like that today?
There is a lot of attention about bullying in our society today. Nearly 1 in 3 students report being bullied during the school year (National Center for Educational Statistics). Bullying can be anything from harassing, calling people names, cyberbullying, to intimidating someone, to actually harming them. The main reasons for being bullied reported most often by students are looks (55%), body shape (37%) and race (16%). Many times the ones who are bullied painfully decide that life is not worth living. Sad for our country. It is encouraging to see schools stepping up and refusing to let it continue, although there is a lot of work to do. The bullies are usually being bullied somewhere else; mostly in their own homes. If you think about it, bullies were babies once and were not born to do this. Like the saying goes, “The hurt, hurt others.”
Let’s go back to when you were a kid. Were you bullied and did your self-respect and self-image take a hit for the rest of your life up until today? Maybe it was a parent or a sibling who bullied you and maybe it escalated to physical abuse or neglect in your home.
Beginning today, realize that who “they” said you were is nothing but lies and has NOTHING to do with how God made you or sees you. A reminder: That bullying came out of their own pain and damage. I know it is easy to say, but it is the truth. Think about it…we allow people who are as flawed and as fickle as we are to determine our value. Read that again.
These chains of insecurity can strangle you and prevent you from being free to be who God actually made you to be. How do you break these chains?
1) Think back on all that was said and done to you when you were a kid. Feel it.
2) Think about the power those words and actions had on you and how they have affected you today. Those words were lies from the pit of Hell and have no place in your life anymore.
3) Make a conscious effort to place them under your feet and refuse to allow them to rise again. Every time you feel insecure, immediately realize why you feel that way and refuse to keep thinking negatively about yourself. This is YOUR life and YOU get to decide what will define you and what will not. You can’t change the past, but you sure can change the present, in the name of Jesus!
4) Ask the Lord to give you the strength to beat the enemy’s attempts at keeping you chained every. single. time. Don’t forget to thank Him for the victory. It will get easier with time.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6,7
#chainednomore #hope #godslove