Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Attitude”
Our Bible verse for today: “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable – if there is any praise – dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Don’t stop talking to yourself.”
Do you talk to yourself? Come on, admit it, of course you do. We all do. In fact, some of the best conversations I have are the ones I have with myself. Truth be told, I’m the most interesting person I know. Lol. I’m certainly the person I know the best and the one I spend the most time with. And so, I’m also the one I talk to the most.
So the question isn’t whether or not you talk to yourself, but rather how much do you talk to yourself and what do you talk about? In our mind there’s a tape playing of noise and thoughts and ideas – noise and thoughts and ideas that, because they do play over and over again in our head, they end up penetrating deeply into our sub-conscious mind thereby becoming key factors in determining who we are and what kind of personality we have.
Self-talk is one of the most important determining factors regarding our sense of self-worth. It also goes a long, long way in determining what our attitude is about life in general and about specific people and events in particular. That being the case then, self-talk can help us or it can hurt us; it can build us up and help us to be happy and successful, or it can tear us down, keeping us depressed and discouraged.
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received in this regard was “Jim, talk to yourself like a coach.” What does that mean? Well, consider the relationship between an athlete in training and his or her coach. The coach is constantly talking to the athlete – guiding, correcting, encouraging, exhorting, but always in a way that’s designed to help the athlete to keep getting better and better. We need to talk to ourselves like that. We need to make the voice in our head be the coach we need to help us stay positive and uplifted and moving in the right direction.
We do that by following Paul’s advice in Philippians 4:8. We fill our mind with good, positive, nurturing, uplifting and encouraging thoughts and then we play that tape over and over again.
But, easier said than done, right? Yes, that’s true. But how we talk to ourselves is simply a matter of habit. And like any other habit, a bad one can be broken and a good one can be learned. It just takes time, effort, and disciplined practice. That’s true whether you’re training yourself to run a marathon, bench press 300 pounds, chew with your mouth closed, or stop leaving the toilet seat up. Through effort and practice you can change. Old bad habits can be broken and they can be replaced by new good habits. And that includes how we talk to ourselves.
So don’t stop talking to yourself, just change what you’re saying. Talk to yourself like a coach.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 