Last week's Bible study was about how certain people in your life are supposed to build your self-esteem up, but sometimes there's a disconnect. That's why you have to go back to the SOURCE (God) to know exactly who you are. Bible study this week reinforces that by talking about the tongue and how other's words about us affect how we view ourselves.
First I had two volunteers come up and draw a self-portrait of themselves on the board, just for fun. Above one was written positive, above the other negative. Then we pulled out our Bibles:
James 3:2-9 (New Living Translation)
2 Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. 3 We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. 4 And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. 5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. 7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.
We discussed this scripture, and the tongue in general. Isn't it funny how your parents are only two people in your life, but what they say have such a great effect on you? This small thing shapes the way we view ourselves and even our actions. And it cannot be tamed, stopped, hindered...that is why we must change our own mindset and let God tell us who we are and let Him control our own tongues. It is just not possible any other way.
So we did an activity to see how much negative comments affect us. On two separate index cards, we put the negative and positive things we remembered people saying about us. When we were done, we put the total number of things on the back and taped it to the chalkboard under their respective headings (negative and positive). For many, I'd even say most, of us, the negative outweighed the positive. And that is because when you get burned, you remember it. We shared our personal experiences, and as people were sharing, I realized something. There are two reactions to negative comments: 1) accept it and claim that thing they say you are or 2) try your hardest to not be that thing. The second option could be good or bad; you could take it to the extreme. For example, my story was that my father used to call me nothing. So therefore, I strived not only to be somebody, but to be the absolute best, no, perfect. And I would call myself nothing if it wasn't up to my standards, no matter how great it was in actuality.
To offset thinking about all these negative things, we did another activity. Yay! There was a mirror in the corner of the room with envelopes taped on it. On the outside of the envelopes were phrases such as "You are needed," "You are beautiful," "You are valuable,""You are strong." Inside the envelopes were essentially letters from God, scriptures reinforcing that God really did say this about you, who are made in His own image. Everyone had to get up and get an envelope but not keep it for themselves. They had to give it to someone else in the room, letting them know that they themselves believed that the other person was that adjective, ect. Then, after each individual opened theirs, they were to pray and meditate on it. When they believed it, they had to go up to the mirror and say it, and if they weren't ready today, then they had to place it on their mirror and keep it there until they could say it to themselves.
We closed out by having small group prayer, and then taking all the negative comments off the board and tearing them up before ending with a collective prayer.
Songs to listen to:
You Know Me by George Huff
Stronger by Prayz1 feat. Angela Wright
Beautiful by OD & ProfetD
Do Right by Prayz1
~Dove Sister DeAnna~
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