Healed from "Not Good Enough"

I don't know about you, but I've spent most of my life trying to "live up" to the expectations I felt were placed upon me. It began at an early age with my mother always on my case, correcting me and redoing the tasks I'd been asked to do because they weren't done to her specifications. I still distinctly remember learning how to do laundry for the first time at 9 years old. Service is a gift, so I was always eager to help wherever needed.

Well, I washed and dried and folded everything and set the basket on Mom's bed. She came in, took one look at it, dumped it out and told me to do it again because it wasn't folded "right."

Now, 20 years later, I've been able to move beyond the resentment and feelings of inferiority that settled inside of me from those formative years. Thankfully, God freed me from believing I "wasn't good enough." He showed me through His Word in the Bible and through others in my life that those thoughts and doubts are all a lie. That I am loved, approved and accepted--by God. And that's all that matters, when it comes right down to it.

God's opinion of you never changes. Others will disappoint you. They'll say or do cruel and hurtful things to you. But you need to face those lies with the truth. You have been given the approval from the Creator of this world. And He will never let you down. You'll go through struggles and trials, and the enemy will try to convince you that you'll never "measure up," but if you take hold of the truth and realize *you* are the one allowing those doubts to take root inside, that you need to uproot them and replace them with the truth...you'll get much further in life.

Is it easy? Not at all. Is it rewarding? You bet! Try it. You'll never know the freedom that comes from it until you do.