Honey is delicious!!!

Raise your hand if you love honey.  Me too.  Just like that silly old Winnie-the-Pooh Bear, I love honey.  My favorite way to eat honey is with peanut butter on a sandwich.  I love that over a PB&J any day.  (But not a PB& banana...that is my favorite...Ok, off this rabbit trail about sandwiches...) The Bible talks a lot about honey.  A lot.  I'm taking it as a great sign that my eternal destination will be filled with lots of this delicious food.  A verse that I read in my quiet time yesterday, really stuck to my heart.  I think part of it came because of a great chapel over the importance of words this past school year.  The other part came from a place of conviction which then pointed me in the right direction.  The verse is Proverbs 16:24- Kind words are like honey- sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.  Wow.  Look at the power of words.  If they are kind, they are sweet to our souls.  And we all know that kind words help us by having a healthy self-image.  Because the chapel this year focused on speaking the kind words to others, I've thought about that verse in the way I relate to others.  Can I say something to encourage?  If I feel a prompting to send someone a kind text message or email that day, can I do it?  What if I sent a fun and caring card to a friend I haven't talked to in a long time?  All of that is important.  But reading Proverbes 16:24 yesterday morning, hit another chord after meeting with some of my lifegroup for a prayer night the night before.

You see, just like what several of us shared, I have struggled with negative self-talk as long as I can remember.  I can remember thinking such negative thoughts about myself that I went down the road of eating disorders and depression.  After years of therapy, prayer, and digging into God's word, I know the truth about myself through Jesus' perspective.  I felt sad when I realized I've deprived myself of sweetness and health for many years.  I do try very hard to take those negative thoughts captive to break that chain and walk away from that lifestyle.  However, when life starts to get rough, guess what rears its ugly self again?  Yup, you guessed it.  Those words that are bitter and sick to the body.  I know when I find myself under stress it is hard to feel positive.  And the first place those positive thoughts flee from are about myself.  Another awesome pastor, Pete Wilson, wrote this great book called Plan B, which changed my perspective about life when I read it during the summer of 2010.  In it, he stated that when we are tired, the devil just takes it as an opportunity to attack because we won't feel like putting up the fight.  Truer words were never spoken.  I haven't been sleeping that well for the past month, so I do feel tired.  And when I'm tired, you probably have guessed it, I don't feel like a truth teller to myself.

My friends, I'm here to encourage you.  Let's stop the negative words to ourselves.  Let's stop thinking we aren't good enough at ______.  Refuse to entertain those words that kill and create sour spirits.  Instead, speak "honey" words to yourself today.  You are loved by the most high God.  You are a member of a Royal Priesthood.  He has equipped you with the strength you need for your day.  He knit you together inside your mother.  God has plans for you, he wants to give you that hope and that future that will exceed your imagination and prayers.  I know that I am going to give myself this little honey pep talk today, maybe even several times, to heal the wounds from the past few weeks.  Let's set ourselves free and feast on honey!