Faith. What is it? The merriam-webster.com dictionary has 3 definitions of faith. I will highlight two: Faith is a firm belief in something for which there is no proof; Faith is something that is believed, especially with strong conviction. We all have faith. We have faith that we will eat everyday, we have faith that the chairs we sit on will hold us up, we have faith that our cars will start, we have faith that we will wake up in the morning. Now that we have a better understanding of what faith is, lets briefly discuss how it relates to healthy self-talk.
We all believe a lot of things. We put our faith in football teams to win the game even if they’re currently losing. We believe our parents love us. We believe our spouses love us. We believe that we will do good in school, we believe that we will get paid for working on our jobs. We believe in ourselves…stop right there. Take a moment to think….Do I believe in myself? What am I telling myself daily? Does my self-talk look like this: “I am stupid.” “I can’t do it.” “I always make mistakes.” “I don’t look like him/her.” Or does it look like this: “I am intelligent.” “I can do anything.” “I fall, but I get up.” “I am happy being me.”
Our belief system, what we put our faith in, determines our self-talk, our self-talk determines our words/actions, our words/actions determine our habits, and our habits determine our character.
“Be careful what you believe about yourself, because you become what you believe about you.”
Growing in Faith 