Have you ever read Max Lucado's children's book, "You are Special?"
It's fantastic.
At the end of the story, the main character is learning to deal with the dots people have stuck to him. These dots are symbolic of labels people put on one another.
The "aha" moment comes when this boy is told, "The dots only stick if you let them."
I know the story is supposed to be for kids but as an adult I must say these words were an epiphany to me. It was a moment of complete revelation to understand the simple principal of not letting other people's opinions and comments define me.
I embraced the mantra, "Don't let others compliments go to your head nor their criticisms go to your heart."
It's not easy to do this but it is quite the start to embracing who I am meant to be.
However, I've discovered another equally damaging labeling system in my life. These are the labels I put on myself. Little threads of self-dissatisfaction that slowly weave together and form barriers in my mental outlook on life.
Take my struggle with organization. For months my closet was been a source of mental contention for me. I would walk in and out of this space every day and think to myself, "Uggghhh, why am I so disorganized? Why can't I have a closet like so and so? I don't think she ever struggles with keeping things tidy. I'm just a mess."
I defined myself as a mess and then resigned myself to being a mess.
It's the same with running late. I hate to run late and yet the realities of getting 5 kids anywhere on time is quite the challenge. But instead of rising up to the challenge and putting parameters in place to ensure on time departures, I found myself just feeling defeated.
I defined myself as late and then resigned myself to being late.
Tomorrow, I want to talk about stripping these labels out of our mental scripts. I'm tired of them. I'm tired of feeling defeated in certain areas and I bet you are too.
What are some ways you've labeled yourself? How do these hold you back? What can we do to "de-label" ourselves?
Let's talk about it.
_____________________________________________________________
Congrats to Nancy English- you are the winner of the E-Women tickets for this weekend's conference or a signed book- your choice! E-mail Holly@Proverbs 31.org to make arrangements. Happy Day!
It's fantastic.
At the end of the story, the main character is learning to deal with the dots people have stuck to him. These dots are symbolic of labels people put on one another.
The "aha" moment comes when this boy is told, "The dots only stick if you let them."
I know the story is supposed to be for kids but as an adult I must say these words were an epiphany to me. It was a moment of complete revelation to understand the simple principal of not letting other people's opinions and comments define me.
I embraced the mantra, "Don't let others compliments go to your head nor their criticisms go to your heart."
It's not easy to do this but it is quite the start to embracing who I am meant to be.
However, I've discovered another equally damaging labeling system in my life. These are the labels I put on myself. Little threads of self-dissatisfaction that slowly weave together and form barriers in my mental outlook on life.
Take my struggle with organization. For months my closet was been a source of mental contention for me. I would walk in and out of this space every day and think to myself, "Uggghhh, why am I so disorganized? Why can't I have a closet like so and so? I don't think she ever struggles with keeping things tidy. I'm just a mess."
I defined myself as a mess and then resigned myself to being a mess.
It's the same with running late. I hate to run late and yet the realities of getting 5 kids anywhere on time is quite the challenge. But instead of rising up to the challenge and putting parameters in place to ensure on time departures, I found myself just feeling defeated.
I defined myself as late and then resigned myself to being late.
Tomorrow, I want to talk about stripping these labels out of our mental scripts. I'm tired of them. I'm tired of feeling defeated in certain areas and I bet you are too.
What are some ways you've labeled yourself? How do these hold you back? What can we do to "de-label" ourselves?
Let's talk about it.
_____________________________________________________________
Congrats to Nancy English- you are the winner of the E-Women tickets for this weekend's conference or a signed book- your choice! E-mail Holly@Proverbs 31.org to make arrangements. Happy Day!
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