Where God's Word Meets Our Mess
These are a few of the many ways I regularly become frustrated. Frustration is one of my common feelings because I love to accomplish things. Perhaps you can relate. And maybe inefficiency drives you crazy, too. But it doesn't need to.
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to criticize men and women in the Bible, especially when their sins are evident? I mean, how could Jonah run away from God? How could Rebekah play favoritism with her sons and deceive her husband? How could David commit adultery and murder Uriah? But we forget that we, too, can quickly fall into sin.
Though I may be the exception to the rule, I feel like females constantly worry about their size, starting with adolescence. Facing the mirror with joy (or even minimal satisfaction) is always a challenge. Rarely can a woman say that she loves what she sees. Even when I was underweight and at an unhealthy size as an anorexic, I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror.
Instead of doing the right thing and choosing to be friendly to the new girl, I stood in the church pew and watched her leave the building. Sure, I felt a twinge of guilt about ignoring her. But I just didn’t feel like talking to her. It wasn’t my responsibility to be the welcoming committee. I wasn’t obligated to speak to her. At least, those were the excuses that I formulated.
Unfortunately, insecurity is just a part of life. There’s no way to avoid it or delay it. We can’t expect it to go away when we get older, and we can’t better ourselves so that we no longer experience it. It’s simply a consequence of the Fall when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. But there is something significant that you should know about insecurity that you've probably never heard before.
Last week’s post included three things that will wreck our self-esteem. But there are lots of things that we (perhaps unconsciously) choose to do that damage our self-esteem. Here are a few more of them.
But it’s incredibly common to have low self-esteem. Sadly, many of the things that we choose to do actually lower our self-esteem without us even realizing it! There are a few common behaviors that generally lower our self-esteem. Hopefully, recognizing these behaviors will help you avoid them! Your self-esteem will probably get wrecked if you do any (or all) of these three things.
To be honest, I’ve struggled with idolatry for years. I want to believe that I simply have chronic idolatry, but I know that’s just a lie from Satan. Whether I want to admit it or not, idolatry doesn’t just “happen” to me; it's a choice. I choose to worship idols. I choose not to let them go. I choose to serve them when I should serve Christ.
Don’t get me wrong—I love my phone. I love that I can text, make calls, go online, make notes, and set timers using one portable device. It can be used for great things, from tithing online to staying in touch with missionaries. But when we use our phones rather than pay attention to the people we're with, we communicate that we care more about our phones (and ourselves) than them.
Tizzie's Tidbits of Truth 