“Who are we but the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, and believe?”
Each and every day, we are telling ourselves stories. Our minds fill with noise and voices and opinions from those around us, from our past, from our fears and dreams. Without realising it we are often speaking words of life or fear to ourselves, constructing stories about those around us, understanding life because of the stories we were told and believed from a young age (for good and bad, and often a bit of both!)
It is important that we can be aware of the stories that we tell ourselves. By being grateful, we tell ourselves stories of contentment and thankfulness and appreciation. When we capture negative thoughts we can hold them up to the light of day, the truth, and see if they actually hold any weight or not. Without recognising the thoughts and tales that go through our heads we can’t weed out the unhelpful, hurtful or just untrue ones in there.
In Romans, Paul reminds the new church in Rome that they need to renew their minds. We can’t just sit back lethargically and expect our minds to be able to make perfect decisions and interpret everything in the best way. We need to actively pursue truth, so that we can recognise lies that sneak in. We need to take captive our thoughts and set our minds on the right things.
As you probably saw in Sketchbook Saturday the other week, I’ve been meditating on lots of verses lately. Painting them and having them in a visual form helps me to keep them in my head, to remind myself of truth I need daily. If you were in our home you’d see Bible verses about the place, a stack of things in my Bible and little cards and prints washi taped on the walls. know Keeping truth from God’s word in my mind and heart daily helps me to tell myself stories that are true, to see life from his perspective (not my own, or the world’s).
I’ve spent time turning these hand lettered, watercolour Bible verses into postcards, and I’m happy that they are now in my little website shop! You can get themed sets or a bundle with all 14 designs. I hope that they might encourage others to dwell in God’s word richly in the same way they have helped me to.
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