I used to think affirmations were stupid.

The idea of speaking “true” things to myself, out loud, was an idea I scoffed at. So, you can imagine how I reacted when my mentor gave me a list of affirmations as a school assignment.

“Affirmations are stupid and new-agey,” I had said, my arms crossed tight over my chest. “They sound like you’re trying to ‘manifest‘ something. I’m not about that.”

“Is it ‘manifestation’ if what you’re saying is already true?” He asked.

I had to stop and think about that one.

You see, I hated the idea of speaking affirmations over myself. It was mortifying. What if someone heard me? Worse, what if someone heard me and needed to “correct” what I was saying about myself? What if what I was saying wasn’t actually true?

Are affirmations and “speaking truth over yourself” really that important?

The Time I was on Channel 8 and Ruined My Own Life

The News, channel 8, wanted to interview us, because when I was fourteen, we adopted a sibling set of six kiddos. We went from a family of 5 to 11 overnight. That’s a pretty cool story.

I was nervous when they threaded the microphone through my shirt and clipped it to my collar, and when they sat my sister and me down together and started asking us questions. I took a breath, squared my shoulders, and decided to be honest.

Two weeks later, we huddled around the TV, waiting for our interview to air. Our segment started playing. I leaned forward. Then my face flashed onto the screen, and I saw myself pouring my heart out. (The video is long since gone, but they have a blog so: Proof!)

I talked about how hard of an adjustment it had been, but how God had taught me so much through it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I talked about how, when you suddenly get six new younger siblings, you have two different ways you can go: babysitter-mode, where you scramble around to appease everyone to keep the peace, or dictator-mode, where you try to control your out-of-control circumstances.

“At first, I was almost like a dictator,” TV-Alli said. “And I really had to learn how to be an older sister and let go of that need for control.”

My phone went off once—twice—three times. I glanced down. One, two, three different people had all texted me the same thing at the same time.

“HA! You’re a dictator?!” “Hello Dictator.” “I’m going to call you dictator from now on.”

I tried to laugh it off. After all, I should have chosen a better word or been less honest about how I’d experienced things. But then they kept calling me a dictator. They changed my name in their phones to “dictator”, and when I tried to explain, to tell them how I really wasn’t a dictator—that the point of what I was saying was that I had grown and please, please stop calling me that—they’d shut it down, pull up the video and tell me how I was a control-freak, that I hadn’t grown or changed at all. I was a dictator, and I always would be, and “aren’t you glad we put up with you and are still your friends even though you’re such a dictator?“

I don’t tell you that story to make you feel pity for me, but to prove a point. Words have power. I had tried to fight the things they spoke over me (and trust me, Dictator is the nicest thing they ever called me). But eventually, you grow tired of fighting, you stop arguing, and you let those vile words wash over you, and something deep inside of you starts to think, “Maybe they’re right.”

That’s when the enemy has an open door he can walk through.

I’ve struggled with insecurity and putting myself online for years because of this (and other) things that people said and did to me. When you think a thought, like “I’m a dictator“, then that thought forms a pathway in your mind. The more you think a particular thought, the more that pathway forms.

By refusing to speak the truth about myself, I unintentionally gave them (and the enemy) a megaphone to speak into my life.

What you refuse to speak into, the enemy will.

Affirmations are essential because they’re literally forming new pathways in your mind to change the very way your brain thinks. Affirmations are how you take back that megaphone and shout truth into your life instead of lies. They’re not stupid or silly or childish, like I had felt like they were, and those feelings came about because I did believe the lies the enemy had spoken over me. It was the easiest pathway for my brain to take.

21 Days of Affirmations

It can take up to 21 days to break a habit. 21 days to form a new “pathway”. That’s why I created the 21 Days of Affirmations. For 21 days, you’ll get a short email in your inbox to remind you to speak a true, biblically based, affirmation over yourself. A reminder to start forming those new pathways!

Don’t fight the enemy alone!

If you’re anything like me, then you know how hard it is to fight off the lies you believe on your own. So, don’t do it alone!

God is pretty cool, and guess what? He thinks you’re pretty cool, too. So let’s speak the truth over ourselves, break those nasty lies, and start walking in the freedom God has called us to!

Start Fighting Back!

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Each time you think a thought, you reinforce it. That's why it's so hard to fight the enemy's lies on your own.

 

Each day, for 21 days, you'll get a short email with a biblical affirmation or truth! So let's break those nasty lies and start walking in the freedom God has called us to!

 

SUBSCRIBE! Thanks for joining! Your first affirmation is on it's way.

Comment below, what are some things that you speak over yourself to fight back against the lies of the enemy?

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