My daughters and I attended the Mother/Daughter Legacy Retreat at Camp Will Run this weekend with guest speaker Tracie Miles from the Proverbs 31 Ministry.  Our alone time spent together as Mother and Daughter covered taking off the mask and stop trying to make others happy so that you feel worthy or accepted.  Some of the questions from Tracie Miles were: (maybe asks these with your family?)

• Have I accepted with my whole heart that God forgives me for my sins, and treasures me as His child?
• What benefits might I receive from trusting God, and putting my faith above my fears?
• What things might God be calling me to do, that may be outside of my comfort zone?

Sitting literally at a cross near the beautiful water, we all three agreed that it all begins in our thought world.  How do we change our thought world from being so negative about ourselves, others, the world around us, the circumstances we are in?  Thoughts, after all, become action, action becomes behavior, behavior becomes our character, and character becomes our destiny.  It sounds so simple – just stop thinking that thought! Have you ever had a song stuck in your brain, or a movie that moved you playing scene after scene in your mind?  You play it over and over and try as you might you just can’t seem to remove it?  Think of years and years of negative thought patterns.  It takes practice for us to retrain our brain. Daily practice. Yearly practice.

I met with a beautiful young lady today who is brilliant, beautiful inside and out, loving, compassionate…..I could list so much about her.  She made a profound comment as we talked about God being greater than our hurt.  She said, “Sometimes you don’t realize you are doing it.”  The “it” being negative thought patterns.  It just………….well……………..happens.  It was comforting to have a sister in Christ to relate to and be REAL with.  I get pumped up in the presence of motivational speakers, but don’t you wonder sometimes if they get sad, or negative, or question, or oh my goodness, “kick the cat?”  That’s my mom’s expression for a bad day.

Back to Camp Willow Run Experience:

So the very next morning Tracie Miles began to talk on negative thought patterns!  🙂  How about that?!  Looking at my notes I will share what she shared with us:

Tips for Learning to Love Yourself:

Try to stop thinking negative thoughts about yourself

• Focus on what you are thinking about
• As soon as a negative thought enters your mind, replace it with a positive one
• Negativity is contagious!  Decide to not hang around negative minded people
• Make a list of all your strengths
• Pray about your attitude and ask God to help you remain positive

Psalm 139: 14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

So the question becomes do you know that FULL WELL?

Insecurities run deep and have roots in experiences.  Think of your tender spots, insecurities and ask, “Where does that come from?”  “What happened?”  “What triggers it?”  As Christians, we know that the enemy is the father of lies, and we know he wants to keep us down.  Sometimes bringing to light what has been in the dark causing our insecurities needs to be talked about with a trusted Christian friend or counselor so we can learn to love ourselves better, and to know FULL WELL, HE has made us – wonderfully made us!

Give it some thought.  What insecurities and negative thoughts do you want to once and for all get rid of?  How will you go about doing this and allowing God to work in your life?  What’s your next step?   Give us your thoughts so we can learn and grow with you.

My daughters and I agreed how hard the work will be, but if you have “a tiny mustard seed of faith, HE can move that mountain.”  Begin with that small faith of believing He can produce change in you.