The one person you refuse to love.
I've heard how you talk to this person. It's vile. Here's how to stop.
Dear friend,
I need to let you know something. I’ve been privy to some of the things you’ve been saying lately, especially to the person you talk to the most. I really can’t believe you’ve been saying what you’re saying to this person. I’ve heard you whisper it, I’ve heard you shout it, and I’ve heard you mumble it. You’ve spoken these things it at all times of the day—from the early mornings to the late nights. Vile, disgusting things. Hurtful, painful things. Angry lies. Half truths. Blatant mischaracterizations.
And I’ve seen how this person responds.
I’ve seen how dejected and depressed they get after you say what you say. I’ve seen how hurt they are. How a cardboard box has more life than what’s behind their eyes. How their spirit is crushed. How their hope fades. Why? Because they can’t help but believe what you’re saying. You say these things so often and with such conviction that they’re convinced they’re true.
Friend, you know who this person is. We all do.
It’s you.
You are the person you talk to the most. You are the one you spew vile things to. You are the one that hates yourself. You are the person you refuse to love.
It happens hundreds of times a day. I’ve heard you. You say things to yourself that would make a prison yard blush.
And it matters. It. Matters. Those gross and vile things you say to yourself can’t help but affect you.
“The things you say to you about yourself, about God and about live are very, very important because they are formative of the way you act and react to they things that God places in your life,” Paul David Tripp explains.1
This talk needs to stop. Now. Today. This very minute. Here’s how.
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