No more bullying!

  The past couple of years have been so life changing for me in more ways than a single blog post could reflect. One of the things that I have been learning is to stop beating myself up and shaming myself. God has offered me forgiveness, grace and mercy.... FREE! I am realizing that when I say things to myself like, " I am so bad" or "I can't believe you just did that! Why would you do such a stupid thing???" I am not accepting the gentle lovingkindness of God, you know, the discipline that comes from a loving Father. Instead, I am trying to punish myself.
  You know, my oldest son is almost 8 years old. For the past year or so, we have really been working with him on this very same heart issue. Every time he gets disciplined or even makes a simple mistake, he starts hitting himself and telling himself how stupid he is. The first time he did this, I was in shock! Where is this coming from? Where did he learn this kind of behavior?
  It was so sad and wrong to see my son trying to punish himself in such an unhealthy way. It was so wrong that I put a lot of effort into figuring out why the behavior was happening and trying to stop it. It's just not okay to hit yourself, hurt yourself,etc... It's destructive and super sad. Don't we so often do the same thing though? We like to "sit on the bed" of our hearts and have fits where we beat ourselves up so badly that we can't function the way that God wants us to function. We cripple ourselves to the point that we can't do what the Lord would have us to do. The saddest part is, most of us do not even realize we are doing it.
  There is soooooo much more to say on this topic and I may blog more about it in the coming weeks. My point here is this, it is time for us to take stock of the words that we say to ourselves (and others) and the way that we treat ourselves (and others). It is time to learn to be the child while God is the Father. It is time to allow God to do the teaching, guiding and disciplining and for us to just be who God made us to be-learning, laughing, making mistakes, accepting consequences, taking responsibility and learning some more. It is time to celebrate the accomplishements, learn from the mistakes and continue on in our relationship with the Lord with the joy, peace and contentment that comes from Him. It is time to stop beating ourselves up and instead loving who God made us to be and who He is making us to be. :)