Category: Discouragement

One Focus That Will Change Everything

Sheri YatesLeave a comment

There’s a movie theater at the gym where I work out. When I first get in there, I can’t hear the movie because all I can hear is the voice in my head that says, “I don’t want to be here. I can’t do this. I’m out of shape. I’m too fat. I would rather be sleeping.” Then I hear my feet hitting the treadmill, then the sound of the treadmill belt. The sound of everyone else’s feet pounding increasingly distracts me. The beeping noises, the feet pounding, the treadmill belt—I can barely take it! The desire to punch someone out at the front desk if they do not turn up the volume is overwhelming. 🙂 

But if I take my focus off of all of those things and put it on the movie and listen very hard, eventually the movie volume grows louder and louder. Before I know it, all I can hear is the movie. Actually, believe it or not, sometimes I forget I am in the cardio room!

When I’m really focused on the movie, it sounds loud and very clear. I forget about all my complaints. In our everyday lives, the busyness, texts, social media, TV, coworkers, children, and friends can all be very noisy. Discouragement, loss of a job, inability to have a baby—those things are really loud. Sometimes all we can hear is our own negative thinking, our hurt feelings, discouragement beating in our hearts, self-loathing. 

BUT if we will just focus on listening for God’s voice, eventually it will be louder than all of the other things that are happening around us, inside of us, and to us. When we hear His voice above everything else, we can actually, believe it or not, sometimes forget we are in the middle of hurt and chaos! 

                                                     

One Focus That Will Change Everything

Sheri YatesLeave a comment
There’s a movie theater at the gym that I work out at. When I first get in there, I can’t hear the movie because all I can hear is the voice in my head that says, “I don’t want to be here. I can’t do this. I’m out of shape. I’m too fat. I would rather be sleeping.” Then you just hear your feet hitting the treadmill, then the sound of the treadmill belt. The sound of everyone else in the rooms feet pounding increasingly distracts me. The beeping noises. The feet pounding. The treadmill belt – oh My! I can barely take it!!!!!! The desire to punch someone out at the front desk if they do not turn up the volume is overwhelming. 🙂 

If you’ll take your focus off of all of those things and just put it on the movie and listen very hard, eventually, the movie volume—grows louder and louder. Before you know it, all I can hear is the movie. I actually – believe this or not, sometimes forget I am in the cardio room!

When I’m really focused on the movie, it sounds loud and very clear. I forget about all my complaints.
In our everyday lives, the busyness, texts, social media, the TV, co-workers, children, people—can be very noisy. Discouragement, loss of a job, not able to have a baby—it’s really loud. That’s all we can hear sometimes, our own negative thoughts, our hurt feelings, discouragement beating in your heart, self-loathing talk. 

BUT! If we will just focus on listening for God’s voice for long enough, eventually it will be louder than all the other things that are happening around us, inside of us and to us. That’s when, all you and I can hear is HIM. We can actually – believe this or not, sometimes forget we are in the middle of hurt and chaos! 
                                                     

I Hate My Reflection

Sheri YatesLeave a comment
What is wrong with MY internal image?
I gained two pounds over my vacation. I was being critical of myself. 
Now – keep in mind that I had just lost 26 pounds and taken my health back in a very hard journey. 
Instead of celebrating that and the victory and finishing strong, I was critical of the weight that I had gained from my gluttony over my vacation. Why did I choose to do that? 
1) Because I had gained weight and I could feel it in my stomach. 
2) The way that I ate, even though it was only one meal a day, it was gluttonous. It actually didn’t even feel right. It felt like a betrayal to my body. It felt like a sin. Like, I’m not supposed to be doing this. I need to hide. You know how kids hide when they are doing something wrong? That’s how I felt like. I felt like this was shameful because it was. I didn’t just have food and dessert. I had food, dessert, dessert, coffee, dessert, dessert. It was as if, literally, I was a starving person and I was never going to have another meal. So of course, I gained weight. 
I was ashamed of it.
In my shame, I ended up speaking self-deprecating words over myself, criticizing the back fat that I put on, my new pooch, and the swelling that I felt from all the sugar that I consumed. And my daughters were watching. 
I am now a tiny mom who wears a size 3 and here I am complaining about two pounds and about how I look. 
I am NOT the only one who does this. I hear it all the time. Admit it – is this you?
Why is it that a woman can be large and find something that is flawed in her body or she can be small and find something that is flawed in her body? How do you know it’s a flaw? What are we comparing ourselves to? Is it the most youthful, best version of us? Or is it pictures of these young girls with perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect colored skin, perfect muscle, and perfect tone? Are we comparing each of ourselves to each other? Are we comparing ourselves to a friend, a trainer, or our children?
Why is it that we look into the reflection and we can leave the house thinking, “I look all right?” But we look at a picture and we just think, “When did my knees become wrinkly? Why do I look swollen? I don’t look as good as I did.”
What is the perfect image we are trying to arrive at in our head? Where did that picture come from?
When we look at a photograph, we shouldn’t be picking apart every crevice, every spot, and every flaw. That is literally like looking at a painting and criticizing every curve, every paint, every shadow, and every part of the picture. At the end of the day, it’s not criticizing the painting; it’s criticizing the person who painted it. I know I was handcrafted by God. My body shape might not be like a model’s or my friend’s body that has a potential being, because that’s not the way I was originally designed.
I don’t know why some got the perfect, gorgeous, beautiful body and others have a different, perfect, gorgeous beautiful shape. I don’t understand that. But it’s okay because I have to look in the image, the picture of myself and see that I am loved and chosen and perfectly the way that I should be. I’m adored by God. I’m a masterpiece.
Every time I don’t do that, I speak negatively, self-deprecating thoughts about myself. I’m really criticizing the creator of my shape, my skin. I’m not being thankful that I can see or smell or hear. Yet, day after day, I see myself look in the mirror and stand sideways and criticize the pouch on my stomach or the wrinkles over the tops of my knees or my dry skin. I criticize my face.
Can you imagine if our body parts were children before us? Let’s say we have ten children before us and we look at them and we’re like, “Oh my gosh! Your knees are wrinkly and you look terrible today.” “Your stem is so dry. Go in there and put some lotion on it.” What we’re really doing is speaking death over our own bodies. No one can survive hearing that discouragement all the time.
Every cell of your body is active and alive and it responds to the sound of your voice. For me, I am sick of it. I’m sick of speaking negatively about myself or pictures about myself because the truth is the tongue has the power of life and death. Every time I speak death, I am speaking death into the atmosphere and death into my own body. My Jesus, he is renewing my youth everyday but I have to cooperate with them. The only way to cooperate with him is to start agreeing and speaking life over me.
I cringe when I hear myself speak critically about myself. My daughters are watching. They are listening, they hear everything I say and everything I do. Do I want them to have the same, horrible image? How do we change that? I know I am creating a legacy of that right now.
Ahhhhhh…..
SHUT UP!!! Sometimes you just have to tell yourself to SHUT up! You have to throw out the TRASH talk and instead, speak the TRUTH!!! 
What is the Truth you might ask?
I am who God says I am – regardless of my appearance. 
I am fit. I am strong. I am healthy. I was chosen by God before the creation of the world and I am enough, I am worthy. I am worth it. I am worth shutting my face and speaking life over myself because I can guarantee you I can have better results from speaking life than I ever will from beating myself down and speaking death and frustrating, disgusting words over myself.
You with me?
Love, 
Sheri 
Father, I just pray today that you would remind us how beautiful we are and that you are enthralled in our beauty in Jesus’ name.
Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear:
    Forget your people and your father’s house.
The king is enthralled by your beauty;
    honor him, for he is your lord.

Psalm 45:10-11 (NIV 1984)