I am a self-proclaimed hot mess. How about you? Are you a hot mess at times? Maybe you haven’t bubbled up to the “hot” level but we pretty much all have mess. Although many of us try to cover it up with a figurative mask, and a literal one since the pandemic started.
We accumulate mess as we walk through life, a little more each day. Our earthly disappointments and experiences impact who we become. We are motivated to protect ourselves out of fear and shame and this limits our potential. We try to avoid rejection. We try to find our worth through pleasing others. We try to achieve success according to the world’s standards. This mess gets in our way and keeps us from doing things we were meant to do and being who we were meant to be.
If you’ve ever watched Hot Mess House, my type is a butterfly where I can shove stuff into a cabinet or closet and, as long as I can’t see it on the outside, I’m good. This is much like how I handled my mess over the years, but now it is all coming out of the closet. 😊 We need to begin to “declutter” our mess so that we can live the lives that God wants us to lead. So, how can we do this? My new book is the answer! Not really, but it might help and you should buy it (LOL). First, we need to create self-awareness of the mess that we need to address. Love it when I rhyme!
To start, I think it’s important to identify any strongholds that may be affecting you. Dictionary.com defines a stronghold as a place where a particular cause or belief is strongly defended or upheld. In short, it is a mindset or attitude. There are many strongholds that we may experience including worry, unforgiveness, judging, materialism, fear, guilt, doubt, resentment, and insecurity.
Paul says,
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
I don’t think we are born with strongholds. We develop them in our minds, through our life events and experiences, and Satan’s deceitful guidance. They are often manifested as broken or damaged thought patterns that play like a broken record in our minds. For example, maybe a close friend or family member deeply betrayed your trust and hurt you. The enemy then whispers that you cannot trust anyone and that you are on your own. You develop trust issues which then result in an unwillingness to trust God’s promises in your life. A stronghold for me and I think for many others is “I am not enough”. We often feel like we don’t do enough or we aren’t enough in terms of being worthy of love, acceptance, or success.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you get to the root of your strongholds.
*What is a constant battleground in my life?
*What unhealthy habit or unhealthy thought pattern has a hold on me?
*What do I constantly struggle with?
And of course, ask God to help in illuminating and overcoming negative narratives that you have internalized. Once you identify your strongholds, you can begin to work on diminishing them. My new book covers a wide range of “issues” and “strongholds” so it could be a good place to start as there are typically actionable steps suggested to help in overcoming the issues. There are also lots of other resources to help, with the best being the Bible!
REFLECT
What are your strongholds?
What will you do to start trying to overcome these negative narratives?
