Renewing: Untruth to Truth

In chapter two of Jennifer Rothschild's book, "Self Talk, Soul Talk", she discusses renewing our thought closet.

As I began reading, I jotted down two questions. From where do these things come? From where have these thoughts taken root?

I found it very interesting that Jennifer mentioned that we can never remove thoughts from our closet. Once there, they can be permanent. Don't we all have memories and hurts that no matter what we do, those never leave us. Our mind seems to capture them and our cells can never rid our brain of them. With God's help, their power can diminish. We can relabel our thoughts. We can replace our false thoughts with truthful thoughts. This process is what Jennifer calls soul talk.

Silent words are not just silent words. Rather silent words quickly become residents in our closets. Thoughts taking space are likely to be believed by us. The silent words spoken become habit. It is through repetition that we speak to ourselves the same pattern of thoughts. Whether good or bad. We are creatures of habit. Just as it has become habit to speak unhealthy untruths, it is through habit we can speak truths. We need wisdom and training to replace the untruths with truth.

As Jennifer says, untruths are "too easy to retrieve and too hard to relinquish." Think about that. Read it again. Isn't that ever so true. We can so easily grab at those untruths. They are right there on the edge of the shelf. They are the first thought hanging in the closet. They are the top item in the bin. We can sort and organize all we want. We can replace them with truth. But for some reason we can always remember they were there. So are they really gone? Nah.

What are truthful words? Those that follow Jesus' example. Those filled with grace. Those filled with power. Jennifer says "Authoritative words should never be harsh and gracious words should never be without power." Wow...that's some good stuff in that statement.
Gracious. Powerful. Truth.

Does is really matter what we say to ourselves since no one is listening and no one is hurt? Yes, it does. "The words you say to yourself - both true and false - have the same impact as words you speak to others or they speak to you." That is so true. For me, I see that it hurts me by stomping on my self-esteem. When I lie to myself and beat myself up in my silent words and thoughts, I'm being destructive to the person God created. When I'm harsh to myself, it may also come out in how I represent myself. I may draw inward with negative self talk. I may seem rude to others because inside I'm beating myself. I may not give of myself because my self talk says I have nothing to give.

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5b

Correction. Not condemnation.
Instructive. Not destructive.

"Even the hard truths we speak to ourselves should not be condemning. They should build us up." I am a big supporter of constructive criticism and giving feedback. It seems in the working world we are quick to give negative feedback. I see the power of constructive criticism or positive feedback. A person cannot learn when not instructed of errors. I believe Jennifer is saying the same here. We are not to excuse ourselves when we make mistakes. But rather, we should give positive feedback. Acknowledge we could've done this better or should've done that a different way. We can learn through our self talk. We can instruct ourselves of our errors and how things should be done next time. We don't, however, need to beat ourselves into a hole until we are covered in muck, beaten to a pole, and left with no motivation to do it better next time because we are just a "screw up" anyway. No, no, no. We love ourselves and we speak to ourselves in love just as we are to speak to others with love.

The tongue has the power of life and death. Proverbs 18:21a

When this scripture is read, we probably all automatically think of the spoken word--out loud and to others. It also means those silent words to ourselves.

Words. Vitality. Demise.
We choose.

Let your conversation be gracious and effective so that you will have the right answer for everyone. Colossians 4:6

Thoughts to ponder...
What hangs out in your closet?
What is pushed into the back corner but needs removed?
What untruths need to be replaced with truths?
What thoughts need to be relabeled?

To see what others have to say about the thoughts in our closets, visit Lelia.

Renewing with Truth,