How often has this situation happened to you:
You’ve just completed something you worked really hard on – a long-term work project, a presentation, an event you planned. Everything about it was a raging success. People are complimenting you left and right and you’re starting to feel accomplished, proud even. But then, that one less-that-complimentary-comment stops you right in your tracks, bursts that bouquet of balloon compliments and everything inside you deflates. Maybe the comment wasn’t even that devastating, maybe it was supposed to be well-intentioned constructive feedback, but all you felt was the stabbing weight of dejection instead. Out off 100 glowing comments all you can remember is the one that left your self-esteem in a heap on the floor.
Sound familiar?
Unfortunately, this has happened to me more than I’d like to admit. I can be riding high, then someone says the slightest uncomplimentary thing, and I’m down and out for days. I have a tendency to let too much of my self-worth ride on what others say or think about me and what I have done.
These are the moments when I forget what I should remember.
I should remember:
- that I am loved and valued by the King of Kings – so much so that He gave his life for me (Romans 5:8)
- that I don’t have to DO anything to earn God’s love or the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23)
- the way people see me is different than the way God sees me (1 Samuel 16:7)
- I am God’s workmanship created to do good things (Ephesians 2:10)
- that I am made worthy because of the work Jesus did (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Residing in a place of remembering these truths is life-giving. It changes things.
It changes me.
Friend, if you’re in a place of allowing the weight of other people’s comments and observations crush you into the ground, I want to spur you on to cling to these life-giving truths listed above. Because that is truth. That is what’s real and what’s right about you and who you are when you belong to Christ.
Today, if you’re spending more time remembering what you should forget, I want to challenge you to stop forgetting what you need to remember.
Embrace these truths. Write them on your bathroom mirror, carry them in your back pocket written on a notecard, change the lock screen on your phone so that you are surrounded by truth when lies slap you across the face.
Hold fast and hold tightly to these words because they are the only thing worth remembering!