Rewrite

A few weeks ago, my Sunday School teacher was looking for people to lead a few weeks in his absence.  We are doing a study called, "The Struggle Is Real" by Nicole Unice.  Standing up in front of kids is easy peasy for me, but adults is a different story.  I'm not fond of it, but after he sent out a plea numerous times; for some reason, I agreed to lead a lesson.  Today was that day.  This particular lesson was about a rewrite...it was about words...and you all know how much I love words.  Words are a big part of who I am.  I don't necessarily speak a lot of them, but I think a gazillion a day; and I love to read and write them.  The lesson focused on being intentional with what we tell ourselves about ourselves vs. the words Jesus tells us about ourselves.   Reading over the lesson and the scripture was so eye opening for me.  Did you know that when Jesus tells us to take the log out of our own eye before worrying about the speck in our brother's eye that He is calling us to some serious self examination?  That scripture is not all about judging others, although a good part of it is.  Jesus is calling us to get right with ourselves before speaking to others about faults.  He wants us to go to our brothers with compassion and concern, not contempt.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Luke 6:41-42

He also tells us that what we put into our mouths comes back out of our body, but what comes out of our mouth comes from our heart.

17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”  Matthew 15:17-19

We need to be intentional about what we tell inner selves and work on our hearts.  Part of the lesson instructed that we devise a plan on how we can tell ourselves the words Jesus would tell us.  I'll admit that I am and have always been pretty hard on myself....I've felt less than worthy about much in my lifetime.  It wasn't until recent years that I started to work on being more gentle with myself.  Yesterday while I was reading this part of the lesson, I was trying to decide how I can talk to my inner self like Jesus would.  What immediately came to my mind was children....my own and others....and how I would want my words to affect them.  Never in a million years would I ever want my children, the children I teach or the children I have any sort of relationship with to let something I said affect their self worth or inner self in a negative way.  It made me realize that that's how I need to talk to my inner self....as if I were talking to one of my children.  Be gentle, kind, encouraging and full of love.  Jesus Loves Me This I Know For The Bible Tells Me So.  But then there's this....Jesus Knows Me This I Love, and He Loves Me Anyway!  I love how God works.  I didn't really want to lead this lesson today, because it's not something I'm good at  (another lie I tell myself); because as Jesus showed me today....I can lead well if I let Him do the talking.  I'm thankful for that nudge.