Last week I was talking and joking around with a friend. All of my friends, wherever they are, are kind and wonderful and genuinely great people, including the one I was speaking with. I told my friend this, and the response I got was, "I'm just alright."
Excuse me? Shouldn't I know the quality of humans I spend time with, day in and day out? It only took me a few moments to realize that we all do this. Whether we demote ourselves out of forced humility or actually believe that we are less than great, we just can't take a compliment. Maybe it's because we want to lower our standards and expectations out of a fear of failure (that one is me for sure).
Whatever the reason behind it, this is what I want to say to the people who think they are "just alright," average, subpar, or any of the other ways we tell ourselves that we are not enough...
Who told you? Who was it that made you feel like a failure, who stole your hope of being something more? Who made you feel so small and insignificant that you decided to set the bar lower than it should be? Who told you that you were a screw up or are anything less than great?
When was the last time you were told something good and you actually believed it? When will you accept how you were created and own it?
Let me tell you this, friend: I BELIEVE in you. You are so much more than you, or anyone else, can see. You are pushing through life with COURAGE. The world hurts, and it hurts deep, but you continue to show up, and sometimes that's all you can do. You are STRONG, and that's a hard thing to be in this world.
Don't you dare, not even for a moment, think that you can get away with calling yourself "alright." You are so much more. What a shame it would be for you to never realize the potential placed within you. Actually no, not even the potential--you are here, doing it now, right where you are.
You are an UNSTOPPABLE force for the Kingdom. No enemy can stand against you, because you carry the strength and confidence put upon you by the Spirit of God. You are His beloved child, tenderly thought of from the beginning of time. Before you succeeded, before you failed, you were unconditionally adored.
Go and be that person. Don't be just "alright," no matter why you think you deserve that title. Be great, and own up to your greatness. God didn't create you for self-condemnation; He created you so that He might be glorified in and through your life. He sees you as royalty, an intentional creation. You were not a mistake. Let Him use you.
I believe in you. I love you, as a sister, a friend, or however you need to be supported.
I learned this past week from my favorite speaker, Jennie Allen, that humans have anywhere from 9,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day (wow!). Over 80 percent of those thoughts are considered negative, and over 90 percent of them are repetitive from the day before. I don't know about you, but that statement fires me up to start making changes in my life, and to bring attention to it in the lives of my people.
It is so easy to get lost in our negative thoughts and start to see ourselves as less than who we truly are. Let's do better by speaking life into one another, affirming what we see as great, and helping one another become even better under the banner of Christ.
*Yes, I know humility is a thing. Yes, I know that too much pride can be dangerous. But I also know that God can't use us if we won't let Him, and based on the statistics above I think our negative thoughts towards ourselves are hindering our ability to be used. So let's start there...