From the desk of Grace Lange,
I want to tell you a story of something that has recently been going through my mind.
As you know, we host tons of events at You Flourish, and recently I decided that my focus is going to be leading each of these events.
Hosting events is fun for me, and I get so much joy seeing people show up on the day of the event!
Yes, it is stressful and overwhelming, but the excitement that it brings me is almost unexplainable.
But there is this one event that we host that made me sort of rethink everything I am doing.
As you may know, we are expanding Breakfast & Bibles to my hometown of Paynesville, MN, and I am so excited about it!
But this new adventure has brought up some thoughts and feelings that I had been pushing away for awhile that I needed to deal with.
When I started to tell people about this event, I would get insecure and I would feel like the people I was sharing it with were judging me.
I felt like they were thinking:
“Why does she think she can put on a faith based event?”
“She isn’t even that holy… she is such a hypocrite.”
“Why is she trying so hard? She is just doing this for attention.”
These thoughts really started to creep into my head, and I couldn’t get them out.
I went back and forth on whether or not I should be the one to host an event like this.
But the question I really battled with was WHY?
WHY am I doing this? WHY should I be the one to host this event?
Then one afternoon I decided to chat with the Priest at my church about everything going on in my life, and I shared the thoughts that I was having about this event in particular and how I felt like a hypocrite, because I am not “holy enough” to host Breakfast & Bibles.
As soon as I said these things to him he told me to STOP.
He said, “Grace, that is the devil telling you those things. Don’t listen. You are worthy and you can do this.”
I instantly broke into tears, because I realized that I was allowing all of those negative thoughts to take over what I ultimately feel called to do.
All of those negative thoughts that I thought people were thinking about me were not true. They were all from the evil one trying to get me to give up.
Now as I sit back and think about all of this after the conversations I have had, I realize how many of us let these negative, crippling thoughts come into our heads everyday.
Whether it is the devil or the crazy lady in the attic of your head, we need to understand that those thoughts are untrue. We need to shut that voice in our head up, because we are worthy, we are good, and we are wonderfully made.
I know you might be thinking… Grace, it’s not that easy to stop hearing these negative things, and I feel ya!
I want to share what I have used in the past to shut those negative voices up:
- Give that crazy voice a name. Whether it is the devil, the B word, or whatever name comes to you first, give that dang voice a name.
- Recognize when that voice shows up the most. Is it at night when you are tired? Is it when you look in the mirror at yourself? Is it when you are at work or with your friends? When is the negativity the loudest?
- Call that crazy person out. Tell it to stop. When you give the voice in your head a name and a persona, it is so much easier to recognize that it isn’t you coming up with these lies, but it is someone else that isn’t worth your time and that just needs to get out.
Now at the end of the day, there will always be a negative voice in your head reminding you of what you are not, so let’s focus on making the positive voice louder than the negative one.
And that brings me to the final section of my story….
WHAT DOES GOD HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS?
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. – Phillippians 4:8-9
We need to focus on all of the good that the Lord has provided for us. When we focus on the negative, we aren’t allowing ourselves to live in the light.
Surrender the negative thoughts and the untrue stories we tell ourselves, and focus on the truth of our faith!