Chapter 8
I Am Lovable
Here are some labels I've put on myself and some my ex-husband put on me. I'm a failure ... I'm a victim ... I'm shy ... I'm just a loner ... I'm overweight ... I'm unattractive ... I'm not very smart. Some of my labels were entire sentences. For example, I played the organ and piano at church, and after church my ex (the pastor) would say, "You can't ever play a song completely through without making a mistake, can you?" Well, with that thought in my head - it was a sure thing I could NOT. The closer I got to the end of a song, the more my brain kicked in and said, "You can't do this ... you can't do this ... you can't do this." Sure enough, I would mess up again.
The longer we believe a lie, the stronger it becomes in our minds. That first marriage lasted 15 years, and over the years, I began to feel ugly, dumb, and that I should give up on music. You may have been given labels, thought they seemed right, and so you believed them. Maybe they were true in the past. But NO MORE.
Today I want you to say, "I am lovable." God says you are loveable. I imagine that you don't feel loveable at times, because your tendency to worry and be anxious has caused stress in your relationships. But in John 17:23, Jesus said, "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me." In other words, this verse is saying that God loves YOU and me just as much as He loves Jesus. That just doesn't seem possible, does it, as much trouble as we get into with our choices? But the Bible says it, so I believe it. I am lovable and so are you.
I play hammered dulcimer now - for the public. To be honest, I still don't play anything all the way through perfectly. And I can still hear echoes of past labels in my head. But I don't let myself focus on them. Instead, I have re-labeled myself "an entertainer." People have fun with me, I make them laugh, sometimes they cry (and I get a ministry op), and children sing with me. If I make a big goof, we all laugh - and at the end, I tell them if they want to hear the tune played correctly, just buy my CD. I don't let those old negative labels dominate my mind any more.
Continue to Chapter 8: Questions
