Ch 1 - Not So Well with My Soul

It's the first chapter in the Yes To God Study hosted by Lelia. We are delving into the book Self Talk Soul Talk by Jennifer Rothschild. Lelia once again thank you for your openness and dedication to hosting these studies. You rock girlfriend. If you haven't stopped by and visited Lelia on her blog Write From the Heart, please do it will bless you, even more so visit some of our other fellow Yes To God bloggers, they are all wonderful women of faith and each has a unique story and the way the share it.

On with Chapter 1. Do you talk to yourself? I do, not always out loud, but there is always a dialog going on in my head. That's what this book is about. What we say to ourselves and how it can either be destructive or constructive. Self Talk, those things we tell ourselves about ourselves all that negative stuff we believe about ourselves.

Jennifer explains it this way, "We grow so accustomed to our own self talk that we don't even recognize its corrosive nature and the damage we're inflicting on our own souls." I don't know about you but that really hit me. How many times last year did I say to myself your not a good wife you can't hardly get off the couch, or look how you've let yourself go what happened to you, and on an on. You don't fit in with these people they don't want to be your friend. Then Jennifer hit me with this, "The truth is, our self talk actually begins to shape the life we live, affecting our very destiny. What you think and say to yourself will impact the texture, color, and music of your life." Wow, how true had that become for me.

I struggle with self-esteem, I can look at myself and have a flow of thoughts about how worthless, ugly, and unnecessary I am; not 30 seconds after my husband has totally told me the exact opposite. Jennifer likened the thoughts we store over our life time to a closet.

The thought closet, now what woman can't relate to a closet full of stuff we collected over time that is ugly and out dated, but for some reason we can't seem to let it go. She says this," I seem to have a secret closet tucked somewhere in the hallways of my mind. A thought closet. And what I had been storing n the closet wasn't good at all: shelves and racks and bins full of hidden thoughts, secret insecurities, lies, illusions, and reminders of former failures." Well back up the U-Haul ladies it's time to empty that closet and replace that Self Talk with Soul Talk.

Soul Talk is speaking the truth of the Scriptures and what God says to us and about us, and replacing that negative Self Talk with soothing loving words form our Lord that soothe our Souls. Words and dialouge that God wants us to know, believe and embrace about who He is, how much He loves us, and it's what He created us to be that we should focus our thoughts on, not the junk that we've filled our closet with.

This reminds me of when Brett was first in recovery. He would tell me about the constant battle he had with the thought of his own mind. His thought closet was full of condemnation, shame, embarrassment, and instructions of how to get pills, excuses to cover it, or how to get lost in the world of lust. It plagued him. I remember that in order to battle that he would go the the bible and he clung to these 3 Scriptures:
First one 2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.
The second was 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. This one he actually had on a dog tag he wore all the time.
The third one was the one Jennifer referred to in her book Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Brett did more than memorize these verses he would recite them whenever he felt those old nasty self talk would creep into his head. He was actually doing what Jennifer is telling us to do. He was replacing his destructive thoughts that had lead him into such darkness, and replacing them with promises from God and God transformed his thoughts and He promised.

So what's my inventory in my closet. After the last study I believe I've found the closet and turned on the lights. I found tons of negative ugliness in there, but I believe I started the removing of some of the negative and now there is more neutral than there use to be. I believe I'm ready now to do a deep cleaning of the closet, and remove those boxes from the 70's, 80's, 90's and even the recent ones added. I'm ready to fill my closet with Soul Talk. I'll leave you with the closing thought Jennifer had in Chapter 1.
"When you speak truth to your soul, you'll live out the truth. Your soul talk really can help it become well with your soul."

Love,
Carol