Welcome to "31 Days of Words to Love By." For the next 31 days, I am working my way through my Pinterest board of quotes and writing down my thoughts about each one – what they spark, where they lead me, and how they apply to every day life... I will be putting a Five Minute Friday spin on it, by writing for 5 minutes, free flowing and unedited. This largely unedited free-write is linking up with the annual Write 31 Days Challenge. // indicates the start and stop of five minutes. //

Today's quote: The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.

// What do you think about yourself? How do you think about yourself? Can you even bear to think about i?

I am continually blown away by how quickly I can assassinate myself in my mind if I'm not careful.

Sometimes the most damning words over our lives are not from others, but actually from ourselves. You're not good enough. You're not smart enough. If only you hadn't have done.... If only you had... You're too thin.... You're too fat... Better Mum's would do... Better husbands would provide... And before you know it, your thoughts are in a spiral of negativity and accusation. And you stand judge, jury and executioner of your own being - and that is before anyone else has a chance to chime in.

I know in my life, forgiving others who had hurt me was tough. But the toughest person I had to forgive was myself, I had to let myself off the hook. And be kind to myself. Why is it that we can be so kind to others about all of their flaws, but we can't even extend an ounce of grace towards our own short-comings? I get it, you should know better, right? //

One of my favourite things about being a Christian, is that my opinion is not the highest authority in my life! And neither is your opinion. The highest authority in my life is the Word of God. That is the standard. And here is what He thinks about me and about you.

We are his handiwork, His poetry.

He sings over us.

We are forgiven.

We are justified.

We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

We are clean. Spotless. Worthy.

I am a child of God.

I can approach Him with boldness and confidence.

There is no hesitation in His heart toward me.

You are beautiful.

You are good enough.

You are qualified.

You are dearly prized by majesty.

The list goes on. And on. And on.

And that is not an arrogance thing. That is an identity thing!

There is a beautiful word that has challenged me over the years and that is the word "align" or "alignment". Which means "the process of adjusting two parts so that they are in the correct relative position to one another". I have had to align my thinking about myself so that it is in the correct position in relation to the Word of God, which is the standard.

So, when you have a thought about yourself, good or bad, you have the privilege of taking that thought and weighing it against His Word to see if it is in the correct relative position.

Eg. "I am a total scatter brain and can't remember anything" vs. "I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind."

Which thought needs to adjust?

I know that you might be thinking... "If you knew me like I know me then you wouldn't be saying that!" But that doesn't matter. Because God knows you even better than you know yourself and He says - you're worthy and all together beautiful and pure and forgiven and significant and loved - He knows the thoughts He thinks about you and they are good.

So dear friend... Align. Bring those thoughts back into the correct relative position with His Word.

I know it is a challenge. It is a process. Yes, the struggle is real. But the freedom? And the joy? And the peace? It's so so worth it.

Thanks for stopping by, K x x

To read more of my 31 Days of Words to Love By Posts, click here

For more information on the Write 31 Days challenge, check out Christina Hubbard’s site!