“Don't spend your life believing a story about yourself that you didn't write that's been fed to you - that simply you've accepted, embedded and added to. Let the story go and there beneath is the real you...and your unique gifts, heart and path that await you.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru
What is the story on continuous loop playing in your head? We all have nested half-truths, or even outright lies that got stuck somewhere along the way and skip over and over and over causing ruts in our consciousness, taking up residence in our soul, telling us what we are, what we are not, and why we don't quite measure up.
Many of these force-fed falsehoods stem from a noxious seed planted in our life's open, unfenced field by someone else with a green thumb for pain and a mean streak, or sometimes just unchecked ignorance. They start growing a prickly weed garden in our tender soil, and then, water it with more and more guile. Before we know it, this cancerous growth gains traction and becomes entangled in our thoughts, wrapping around and changing our story, warping and distorting truth.
And then too often, as willing farmhands, we help it along, believing the lies, tending to the shrubs. The bed of bitter root becomes an unruly briar patch, choking out what is real and what is pure. "I am ugly" tramples the more frail sapling of "I am lovely". "I am stupid" pushes out the more delicate seed of "I am bright". Or, the biggest lie of all: "I am unworthy of love".
This fictitious version of our story is the tarnished, useless token we keep sewn into our heart's pocket. We have all been damaged by someone else's labels on us and instead of tossing the useless counterfeit coin into the fire and walking away, we instead hold on tight, believing it is real, and bringing it along everywhere we go, assigning it value and respect that it doesn't warrant.
But, we must remember what is actually true, and truth is always, without exception, what our Creator says about us, because He wrote the book and owns the copyright:
"You are so beautiful, my love, in every part of you." Song of Songs 4:7 (TLB)
This is your true story! Whatever false narrative you have accepted as real needs to be held up to this clear mirror of truth. If a discrepancy is found in your version, toss it out. Reality check: You can rely in full confidence on God's word. He is all truth and He has no ability to tell you anything else - it is not in Him. He alone is Editor-in-Chief, don't allow an imposter to take this position in your life - it is far too important left to anyone else.
Now. Today. Do not put it off another moment - turn over the knotted soil, weed it out, clear-cut if you have to, and then, replant the good seeds of truth and grow what is sustaining and real. You are too precious to live otherwise. Waste not one more day in the overgrown garden of someone else's sloppy planting.
Step back into your true story, walk into who He says you are - beautiful, loved, brilliant and adored - every part. Now this is worth listening to; God's perfect podcast of truth!
Question: What is the false, overplayed story you have believed that has a chokehold on your life? Ask God to uproot it and plant His truth in its' place today!