A friend who has struggled with some major stressors lately recently had a bad day. The problem she faced wasn’t huge, but she was exhausted and weary, and didn’t handle her emotions well. She ended up screaming at her kids and stomping out of the house.
Afterwards, remorse set in. “I started yelling at myself with the usual litany,” she told me, “Saying, “‘You’re such a bad mother!’ and, ‘What a lousy Christian!'”
But then something new happened.
“It was as if a voice interrupted me,” she said in wonder, “Commanding, ‘Stop tearing down my creation!'”
Stop tearing down God’s creation.
Our Father doesn’t ask us or want us to bully ourselves. We are to talk to ourselves as we would talk to others. We are to be firm but gentle. Honest but merciful. Kind and forgiving.
Maybe another way to think of it is this: Would Jesus speak to you the way you speak to yourself? He loves you. Yes, even when you mess up. Don’t tear down His creation.
