This past weekend I had the privilege of speaking to a room full of women at the Draw Near Retreat in the beautiful mountains of Tennessee. During our time together I shared my story and struggle through depression, counseling, and lies I had believed in for years.  I encouraged the women to begin to take action over their thought life with practical steps. I wanted to share with you some snippets from my talk and give you a free printable that went with it!

What many of us don’t know is, what we think determines how we feel and what we do.

Have you ever woken up and fallen into the trap of negative self-talk? In other words, believed in lies about yourself or someone else?

The next thing you know your attitude is poor, the way you treat others has changed, and you find yourself at the end of the day full of guilt and frustration because one simple lie dictated your whole day.

I guarantee you there isn’t any one who doesn’t struggle with believing in lies. Some of us begin our days thinking thoughts such as:

I am ugly.
I am a failure.
I will never find a husband.
I have no value and no friends.
I am not a good enough mom.
I will never pursue the career I dreamed of because I am not good enough.
She has got it all together, why doesn’t my life look like hers?
Will my marriage always be like this?

Many of us deal with these lies. Sometimes it’s a result of our circumstances that cause us to go into this negative self-talk. Sometimes it’s simply the enemy and his agenda.

I love what Lysa Terkeurst says, “We can’t’ control the voices that reign at us, but we can control the voices that reside in us.”

Quite often we are unable to change our circumstances but we can refuse to be victims of lies. Lies get in the way of us experiencing God’s best.

If you are feeling like a failure today, or if you are believing that you aren’t worthy, lovable, or important. If you are believing in lie after lie after lie. I want to remind you….

You have value. You are so loved. You have immense worth because of what Jesus did for you. Your value was established the day he died on the cross for you. Maybe your like me and you believed otherwise for so many years.

I don’t know what your childhood has told you, or what your past tells you, or even the things that you have done tells you —- I can only tell you today what God has done for you and says about you. The TRUE THINGS.

Did you know that there are practical ways to combat the lies in your life?

I love the 4 R’s to combat the lies in your life found in Telling Yourself the Truth: 

1. Recognize the lies in your life. Locate them. Ask yourself, where are these lies coming from? Look at your first thought! What triggers do you have? Is it Social media, comparing or being in an unhealthy relationships? What is it that stirs up these thinking habits?
2. Remove the lies. Argue the lies that come into your mind. Sometimes I would talk to myself. I would argue with my thoughts out loud like a crazy person because in that moment it helped. Refuse to be a victim of lies by removing them.
3. Replace the lies with God’s truth. Hold onto scripture, post them all over your house, in your planner or in your car. Take part in scripture doodle and meditate on his word. Say true things about yourself to yourself through out the day. Ask those closest around you if what you are believing in is truth or a lie. Sometimes we just need a friend to encourage us.
4. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat these steps every morning.

If I am being honest I still struggle with lies. Every. Single. Day. Lies creep in often and can dictate my day if I’m not careful. It can even affect those closest around me.

Yet if I seek God every morning, submit my will to his, and my thoughts to his by practicing these 4 R’s I can fight off the lies. The same is true for you.

I want to encourage you with this verse:

“Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord. “ Psalm 107:43

Heed means to pay attention, to take notice of. I love this. My hopes are that we will be wise women. Wise women because we HEED, we treasure up the TRUE things about ourselves, about who God is, and what he has done for us.

My dear friend April Knight made a beautiful response sheet for the retreat and I wanted to share it with you! This is a great way for you to take action over the lies you may have been telling yourself lately. Download this printable here.

I hope you have an amazing week!