JUST RIGHT!

CAUGHT BETWEEN TOO MUCH AND NOT ENOUGH

One second I feel like I should text first and make myself pursuable and the next second I feel like I am giving myself away to cheap. One second I feel really confident and the next second I feel like I am bragging and need to humble myself. This is how I have been feeling a lot lately and if I feel this way; I know there has to be another sister out here living the same struggle. 

So let's talk about it.

If the compliments of people are what is building you up, it's the criticism of the same people that will tear you down.

1. He said. She said

The first reason we will never feel like we are enough; is that we build our lives on the words of other people. And let me tell you, that's a pretty shaky foundation. "You're so loud. You talk too much. You're naive. You're too nice. You're too quiet. You're too bubbly."

I know we've all heard statements like these from relatives and family and the more we hear them we believe them. Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17) but in this case, it's not build based on the word of God but by the words of others. Words carry life, they build up or they tear down they carry life and they carry death. Watch what people say to you. In a generation where being petty and sarcastic is so accepted, we need to guard our hearts and place the word of God above anything anyone tells us. If we live by the words of men we will also die by them. But if we build our lives upon His word we will have life. Compliments are nice and criticism can be helpful but don' let people tell you who you are. People tell us a lot of stuff in a day. 

They tell you-you're so sweet, you're so funny; you're so well spoken and that's okay but the moment these same people stop telling you those things and replace their words with: "Girl you're crazy." "Why are you always dressed like this?"  "You're so extra." Don't let that get to you. Because there is someone whos words last forever and He has spoken greatness over you. And what He has spoken over you makes every word another person says worthless. God's word is over everything. Don't get me wrong, there are people out there that will sincerely want to speak life and love over you just like there are people who don't. Don't let anyone convince you-you're not enough or too much, because God said otherwise.

2. There's nothing wrong with you

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

This might be breaking news for someone, but there is actually nothing wrong with you. No matter the stage you are at in life right now, you are absolutely, 100 percent, perfectly fine. No matter what you or others believe you need to improve about yourself, you are already perfect right now. 

Everything "bad" God points out to you isn't to condemn you, but to build you.

Let me tell you a little something about myself. I am crazy. I am super weird and I say this with confidence. I don't think any sane person could be in my head for a day and come out stable. I have such a big imagination and my mind drifts off a lot of times. 

So every now and then, I get to a point where I think to myself: " Okay Ashley, you need to stop being a weirdo and change". But God has been using every awkwardness inside of me for His glory. Because of my imagination, whenever I get a mission I am able to make it a vision because my mind can think really far ahead. This helps me to read one word in a Bible scripture and create a whole blog post out of it. 

When God made you He didn't make any mistakes. He will use everything you've got for His glory. The things people criticize about you and even the things you don't like about yourself.
Give it all to God and He will use it for good. 

3.  The voice in your head

You're not a psychopath if you hear voices in your head. We all have them. We are all always thinking about something and always communicating with ourselves. There are many voices in the head of a person and the most treacherous one is the voice of our subconscious. This is the voice that will feed you the most dangerous lies. "Nobody is ever going to love you". "Everyone is making major moves except you". "She is prettier than you". I hear that voice a lot when I'm blogging; telling me: 'no one is going to get what it is I am trying to say and how bad I am at bringing my point across.'

We all have that voice that slowly but surely convinces us of lies. And the reason this is so dangerous is because your subconscious becomes your conscious. It is so dangerous because this voice is the voice of the flesh which is hostile to the spirit (Romans 8:7). This means that there is something on the inside of us that is working against us and that is why we are at war with ourselves. Whatever is feeding the voice of your flesh will make it louder. It could be Instagram or a reality TV show. Distance yourself from what is nurturing your flesh. The only way we can come against that voice and mute it out is by being more spiritual. Strengthening our spirit will help us overcome the voice of our flesh. Feed your spirit. Get into the presence of God. Get into His word. This is how your spirit will become alive and loud and your flesh will have to shut up!

Whenever our hearts make us feel guilty and remind us of our failures, we know that God is much greater and more merciful than our conscience, and he knows everything there is to know about us

1. John 3:20

4. We believe the lie 

If we believe the lie that God is not enough we will never be who God intended us to be. We will always try to please people and be the slaves to peoples opinions. We will measure with wrong tools and by the wrong standard. And that's exactly what the enemy wants for you: For you to never be you.Because that alone would be enough. Enough to inspire someone, enough to pursue your purpose, enough to make an impact. Because the truth is this. God is enough and He is in you, that makes you enough!

... because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

1.John 4:4