Words

I had a conversation this week with someone that broke my heart.

It pains me so much when people listen to hurtful words others speak to them...and believe them...when they are not true.

I think we've all been in this situation before.

I had someone in my life at one point that spoke horrible things to me. I was called horrible names and was told I wasn't worth it or good enough. I was made to feel worthless...and yet, I continued to put myself in the situation to keep hearing these words.

I think I knew deep down that they weren't true...but I did believe them for awhile. I accepted them as truth...and I started to feel very bad about myself. It's only by the amazing ways of my Savior that I was finally able to see these things were not true. He called me away from that person and called me back to Himself...where He reminded me of how beautiful and lovely He saw me...and how much He loved me.

So, when I see someone in a similar situation, it literally tears my heart in two. Because I've been there...and I know how hard it is to really believe that those things aren't true...even though you hear them over and over again. I encouraged this person to remove the harmful person from their life...so that this would not continue. It's the only way things will ever change.

I just wonder why we put ourselves in these situations in the first place. If we really believed the truths that God speaks into our hearts, I know we wouldn't let negative words affect us. But, it's often hard to remember the words of our Savior when someone in front of us is berating us day in and day out.

The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7b (NLT)

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.
1 Peter 3:3-4 (NLT)

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
Psalm 139:13-14 (NLT)

So no matter how other people see us, let us remember the way that God sees us...and cling to that...and forget about the other stuff.