“You’ll Never Measure Up…”
“You can’t do this…”
“How can anyone possibly love you?”
“You have nothing to offer…”

One of the things I get to do in mentoring others is to work with elementary students. I check up on a few, and mentor many. Recently I was part of a “Boy’s Group” in which we gathered boys who were struggling a bit with their behaviors and gave them some guidance in how to behave and interact with others. Something we find with children having behavioral issues is that their own self-perception is often flawed. Something that can be of great benefit in building strong character and morality in youth is to teach them how to see themselves, beginning with self-talk.

This is a critical skill to learn for ANYONE! What are the things you say to yourself day to day, hour to hour, or minute to minute? Do you spend your time encouraging yourself? Or do you soend your time criticizing and chastizing yourself? I often have to catch myself and correct my own self-talk.

We Christians frequently hear of the need to be “convicted” by the Word and by the Holy Spirit, and this is true. But it doesn’t mean what you think! When we correct our children, we find that it is most successful when it is done encouragingly, not discouragingly. As parents and guardians we don’t set goals our kids CANNOT MEET. We set goals and encourage them to meet them. True, there are consequences for not meeting them. But effort is always rewarded and, as loving parents, we know it is a process. How much more is this true for our Father in Heaven?

Christ came and showed us the right way because we strayed too far off the path. He came to provide us a means to everlasting life in His glorious love! We DO have WORK to do. We DO have CHANGES to make. We DO have GOALS to meet for His plan and purpose. But they are attainable.

Look, it took you a LONG TIME of straying to get where you are. He knows this. Follow Him. Carry your burdens to Him and give them to Him. Conviction is simply the Spirit telling you when you are wrong and how to fix it. So fix it. But don’t beat yourself up and discourage yourself. You are a constant work in progress. We all are! How you talk to YOURSELF makes a difference! All those discouraging words are coming from the evil one, not from God.

God is encouraging you. You know the consequences of failure. He knows that. He is not whispering the consequences in your ear, He is whispering words of encouragement to you because He knows you can succeed. Consequences are a natural result of actions. Christ is encouraging you with right actions. He is admonishing you not to give up. He is telling you that you can do this. And just like we teach our children, he is telling you to change your inner dialogue. Start giving yourself words of encouragement more than words of discouragement.

Start telling yourself that you can instead of constantly becoming frustrated when you falter. Acknowledge the mistake, ask for forgiveness and repent, pick yourself up by the bootstraps and move on. And while you’re at it, encourage those around you as well. We are the hands and feet of Christ. We are his work! You can do this, Christ knew that or he would never have died for you in the first place.

~Pastor Brian Wattenbarger