20Something 9-7-05 (Scot Pankey)
Today we will be talking about self esteem and affirmations and how God can work in both of these areas of our lives.
Listen to how Ruth affirms Naomi in Ruth 2:16-17 And Ruth said to her: Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you: For whither thou goest I will go and whither thou lodgest I will lodge; and your people will be my people and your God my God. And where you die I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts thee from me."
Who in your life has affirmed you? How so?
Do you affirm yourself?
Affirmations increase self esteem
Feed your mind with positive affirmations. They can overcome persistent negative thoughts and help to promote a healthy state of mind.
Affirmations combat negative baggage in your brain. Without realizing it you tell yourself negative things constantly. The result is a destructive belief system which holds you back and prevents you succeeding. One very effective way to change this belief system so that it becomes helpful to you is to replace misguided negative messages with new positive ones.
Affirmations will only work if they are true! The following affirmations are some that are use and which may be helpful for you. You can also develop others of your own. The power they have to alter your life will make itself felt if you repeat them DAILY and when you are thinking negatively. Try to focus on one affirmation and consider what it means to you in your life. Tell yourself:
I deserve to be happy and successful
I have the power to change myself
I can forgive and understand others and their motives
I can make my own choices and decisions
I am free to choose to live as I wish and to give priority to my desires
I can choose happiness whenever I wish no matter what my circumstances
I am flexible and open to change in every aspect of my life
I act with confidence having a general plan and accept plans are open to alteration
It is enough to have done my best
I deserve to be loved
Do you incorporate these Affirmations into your daily life?
Which ones are hard for you to believe for yourself?
What affirmations would you add to these?
Where does God fit in all of these?
Self Motivation
This is central to everything positive that you want to do in your life. Perhaps it is even more important than your self esteem!
Why? Because if you want to improve your self esteem or improve yourself in any way at all you first need the inner desire and will to do it.
I hear you saying that not everything comes from within. You may be motivated by external factors, others may encourage you to start something new or begin moving in a positive direction. You can be motivated by faith, by your belief in God and in doing what is right. You can even be motivated by negative events to achieve positively.
But what is the result of these external factors? Motivation - you are moved to achieve something you badly want.
Why you need self motivation
You cannot always rely on others to encourage you, if you have positive friends who are always there when you need them then you are indeed lucky and very much in the minority. If you are lonely or have few friends when you face any difficulties in your life you must rely on your own motivation to get you through. Lack of self motivation at that time could lead to depression.
You need self motivation to achieve because if you don't encourage yourself to accept opportunity and challenge who will?
To plan and find direction in your life
To take up a new activity, hobby or challenge
To be enthusiastic about life and living
To have the courage to see things through despite setbacks or negative comments from others
This is not an exhaustive list because self motivation is so important in every aspect of your life. The very fact that you are here searching for answers and trying to improve yourself shows that you are motivated.
Do you agree or disagree with the list above?
What if you lack self motivation?
How can you become motivated again? Good question!
Here are some suggestions:
Focus on what you really enjoy doing, maybe on something you want to take up or on a hobby you've always wanted to devote more time to. What's stopping you? Think about giving it priority to start doing what you love doing.
Make a list of things you'd like to improve on and how you're going to do it
Review all the successes you've enjoyed in every area of your life, totally forget any negatives, just positive successes here!
Start an exercise program - force yourself to do it, it'll make you feel much more positive.
Contact a positive friend and have a chat.
Read inspiring books that will help heal your mind and improve your attitude.
Have a quite time with God. Spend quality time with God everyday by reading the Bible, prayer, journaling and other ways.
Lack of motivation happens to us all!
Even the most positive of people sometimes face a situation where they lack motivation. This happens to us all because we all face the same or at least similar difficulties in life. True you may be affected more or less than others because you react differently to the challenges and setbacks which you face. It is your attitude and responses to life which dictate how you feel.
Abusive people lower your self esteem and put you down. If you live with an abusive person you are at a big disadvantage and may suffer very low confidence. The best advice is to get this abusive person out of your life, don't accept abuse ever. If you absolutely can't escape that person then you need great inner strength and God’s help to stand up to it.
You may have friends who are negative or who put you down. This shows they have a problem but the tragedy is these people suck you dry of positive energy and being with negative people can only sap your inner strengths. Chances are that any self motivation you have they will slowly destroy and bring you down to their level.
Do you have friends that put you down?
What is so great about having God in our lives is that our Creator never puts us down. God lifts us up because of who we are not because of how we look, our jobs, or even where we live. God looks at our heart.
1 Samuel 16: 6-13
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." 11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down [a] until he arrives."
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
Just as Samuel affirmed David, go around your circle and affirm others in your group.
Pray and dismiss.
Listen to how Ruth affirms Naomi in Ruth 2:16-17 And Ruth said to her: Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you: For whither thou goest I will go and whither thou lodgest I will lodge; and your people will be my people and your God my God. And where you die I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts thee from me."
Who in your life has affirmed you? How so?
Do you affirm yourself?
Affirmations increase self esteem
Feed your mind with positive affirmations. They can overcome persistent negative thoughts and help to promote a healthy state of mind.
Affirmations combat negative baggage in your brain. Without realizing it you tell yourself negative things constantly. The result is a destructive belief system which holds you back and prevents you succeeding. One very effective way to change this belief system so that it becomes helpful to you is to replace misguided negative messages with new positive ones.
Affirmations will only work if they are true! The following affirmations are some that are use and which may be helpful for you. You can also develop others of your own. The power they have to alter your life will make itself felt if you repeat them DAILY and when you are thinking negatively. Try to focus on one affirmation and consider what it means to you in your life. Tell yourself:
I deserve to be happy and successful
I have the power to change myself
I can forgive and understand others and their motives
I can make my own choices and decisions
I am free to choose to live as I wish and to give priority to my desires
I can choose happiness whenever I wish no matter what my circumstances
I am flexible and open to change in every aspect of my life
I act with confidence having a general plan and accept plans are open to alteration
It is enough to have done my best
I deserve to be loved
Do you incorporate these Affirmations into your daily life?
Which ones are hard for you to believe for yourself?
What affirmations would you add to these?
Where does God fit in all of these?
Self Motivation
This is central to everything positive that you want to do in your life. Perhaps it is even more important than your self esteem!
Why? Because if you want to improve your self esteem or improve yourself in any way at all you first need the inner desire and will to do it.
I hear you saying that not everything comes from within. You may be motivated by external factors, others may encourage you to start something new or begin moving in a positive direction. You can be motivated by faith, by your belief in God and in doing what is right. You can even be motivated by negative events to achieve positively.
But what is the result of these external factors? Motivation - you are moved to achieve something you badly want.
Why you need self motivation
You cannot always rely on others to encourage you, if you have positive friends who are always there when you need them then you are indeed lucky and very much in the minority. If you are lonely or have few friends when you face any difficulties in your life you must rely on your own motivation to get you through. Lack of self motivation at that time could lead to depression.
You need self motivation to achieve because if you don't encourage yourself to accept opportunity and challenge who will?
To plan and find direction in your life
To take up a new activity, hobby or challenge
To be enthusiastic about life and living
To have the courage to see things through despite setbacks or negative comments from others
This is not an exhaustive list because self motivation is so important in every aspect of your life. The very fact that you are here searching for answers and trying to improve yourself shows that you are motivated.
Do you agree or disagree with the list above?
What if you lack self motivation?
How can you become motivated again? Good question!
Here are some suggestions:
Focus on what you really enjoy doing, maybe on something you want to take up or on a hobby you've always wanted to devote more time to. What's stopping you? Think about giving it priority to start doing what you love doing.
Make a list of things you'd like to improve on and how you're going to do it
Review all the successes you've enjoyed in every area of your life, totally forget any negatives, just positive successes here!
Start an exercise program - force yourself to do it, it'll make you feel much more positive.
Contact a positive friend and have a chat.
Read inspiring books that will help heal your mind and improve your attitude.
Have a quite time with God. Spend quality time with God everyday by reading the Bible, prayer, journaling and other ways.
Lack of motivation happens to us all!
Even the most positive of people sometimes face a situation where they lack motivation. This happens to us all because we all face the same or at least similar difficulties in life. True you may be affected more or less than others because you react differently to the challenges and setbacks which you face. It is your attitude and responses to life which dictate how you feel.
Abusive people lower your self esteem and put you down. If you live with an abusive person you are at a big disadvantage and may suffer very low confidence. The best advice is to get this abusive person out of your life, don't accept abuse ever. If you absolutely can't escape that person then you need great inner strength and God’s help to stand up to it.
You may have friends who are negative or who put you down. This shows they have a problem but the tragedy is these people suck you dry of positive energy and being with negative people can only sap your inner strengths. Chances are that any self motivation you have they will slowly destroy and bring you down to their level.
Do you have friends that put you down?
What is so great about having God in our lives is that our Creator never puts us down. God lifts us up because of who we are not because of how we look, our jobs, or even where we live. God looks at our heart.
1 Samuel 16: 6-13
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." 11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down [a] until he arrives."
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
Just as Samuel affirmed David, go around your circle and affirm others in your group.
Pray and dismiss.
posted by Jen Austin at 9:40 AM
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