Monday, June 15, 2009

But a kind word cheers him up....

Proverbs 12:25 (New International Version)
An anxious heart weighs a man down,
but a kind word cheers him up.
I have read this wonderful proverb many, many times in my life. As someone who has often had an "anxious heart," I have searched for ways to relax or find comfort in God's word.
Proverbs 12:25 offers a good solution: If you have an anxious heart, you need a kind word to get cheered up.
Many times I have despaired because I've spent a great deal of my life alone. There haven't been many kind people in my life to offer a kind word to me. Or, perhaps there WERE kind people, but more often than not, they were just too busy to stop and be kind to me.

Thus I despaired: how is my anxious heart supposed to get cheered up if there isn't someone else around to offer me a kind word!?

This weekend, something hit me like a lightning bolt:
I can tell them to myself.
I don't have to wait for someone else to have time to be kind to me, to give me a compliment or say something flattering to me, or to lift my heart for me. I'M right here with me all the time. I can make time for me any time that I want! How often have I taken time in the past to berate myself for some silly mistake, or put myself down for how I look in a bathing suit? How often have I called myself stupid?
If I can make the time to give myself an anxious heart, surely I can make the time to cheer my own self up.

So what can I tell myself today to cheer myself up? Even if I have a downer of a day where NOTHING is working out, the baby is crying and won't take her nap, another bill comes in the mail, my chronic pain will not let up, it's raining for the 4th day in a row?
Here are some things that are ALWAYS true, regardless of my circumstances, that always cheer me up:

God has a good plan for my life.
I am the righteousness of God in Christ.
Everything that God starts, He finishes.
I am the apple of God's eye.
God is way bigger than any problem I have.
The God of the universe lives in me.
God is always working in my life to bring about good things, even if I am not smart enough to see it yet. How about that?
God loves me so much that He always wants to bless me.

I feel myself cheering up already.

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