Have you ever just wanted to get out of your own head? I have.
I have a hard time sleeping at night. My mind likes to talk the loudest at night when I am trying to rest. It’s talking about ideas for new projects at work, what I should have said in that conversation I had with a friend, that I should really cut back on the French fries, that I really need to work out more because those French fries are staring to show at my waste line, what am I going to wear to work tomorrow, I really need to do some laundry, I need to set up that dentist appointment, I really hope this new skin care line works because I’m getting real tired of pimples, why I have never had a boyfriend and I’m 24… the list goes on and on and on.
This constant chatter has caused me to binge on Netflix or read books late into the night to just get out of my own mind and then hopefully exhaust myself enough to fall asleep quickly. The problem is, even when I would stay up so late watching a Netflix show that sleep quickly came, those thoughts just chattered away during the day. You see I was only running away from them but they seem to be fast runners and would quickly catch up with me.
In January of 2017, God told me the word “change.” He told me that my life was going to change throughout the year. That was it. He didn’t say how or when or why. As you can imagine my initial reaction was fear. I liked my life. I live in Southern California where you can jet to the beach to catch the sunset after work or spend an afternoon at Disneyland with friends. I have a great life why did it need to change. What I experienced throughout 2017 was so unexpected. I experienced a change in my mindset.
I spent the year getting to know myself better, learning and observing how I responded to people, failure, criticism, insecurity, fear. What I found was that I was letting my mindset shape how I viewed myself, my purpose, and my success. Instead of learning from a failure, I was defining myself as a failure. Instead of letting other’s attitudes bounce off me, I was letting it affect me and become my attitude. When I identified how much I was letting outside circumstances and people influence my mindset, I knew I needed to change it.
Part of being a warrior is putting on your armor. Paul shares with us in Ephesians the armor we should be putting on everyday. I don’t think it’s an accident that Paul tells us to put on the helmet of Salvation. When Jesus came to be our salvation, the grace and forgiveness that comes with that tells of a love unlike any other and God wants us to live knowing and understanding that we are loved. When I let this truth, that I am not only loved by God but He created me so that He can love me, my mindset shifts from noticing all of my deficiencies and instead on who I am in God’s eyes.
Living out a Wonder Woman life starts in our minds and we need to let truth be the foundation of our minds. Throughout 2018, I have challenged myself to focus on learning, meditating, and memorizing God’s Word. By doing this, I am equipping myself for the battle of my mind. Anytime a negative thought or fear or insecurity comes into my mind, I will respond to it with God’s truth. Lysa Terkeurst, wrote in her study Made to Crave, “As we recite truth, God’s power can fill the gap of our weakness.”
So my fellow warrior friends, I leave you with this challenge from Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
