Shut up, MOUTH!

I am a procrastinator.

It's a terrible quality of mine.

I suffer from the 'I'll do it tomorrow' or 'I'll do it later' syndrome.

I'm not a believer or promoter of medication unless it's absolutely necessary....but....if there were a pill to cure my procrastination-itis....I would heavily consider requesting a prescription!

One of the worst things about my flaw is that I often leave projects un-done. I start something & very, very seldom actually follow through. Exercising, eating right, homework, household DIY projects, journaling, reading my Bible, etc. I have started 5 projects this year & have completed  maybe one none of them.

But the best thing about my flaw...the thing I constantly try to remind myself of....is that it leaves a LOT of room for improvement. It gives me a lot to work on and towards which gives me hope for "getting better".

One of the projects I started & never finished was my "confessions" project. GOD is so patient with us when it comes to changing us. With so many things to work on - so many areas of 'sin' - you would think HE'd try to fix you all at once. But nope - HE's a gentleman. Always has been, always will be. That's why HE established Grace - to cover what HE chooses to set on the back-burner while HE focuses on changing the things HE brings to our utmost attention. The area of focus & improvement HE's bringing to my attention this year (1 of 2 - more about the 2nd one in a later post) is the power in my words.

The Bible says that our words bring life & they bring death & that it's our responsibility as HIS children to choose life. Let me begin by telling you - my mouth has been known to bring me embarrassment, pain & regret. So this challenge has not been easy. GOD is greater than my struggle but I feel as though I'm giving HIM a run for HIS money. If I didn't believe in HIS perfect nature & strength...I'd be sure HE'd given up on me by now.

After much struggle & maaaaaaaaaaany attempts to take the situation into my own hands (I'm sort of a control freak - another great quality of mine. *Sarcasm intended* ) I finally gave this flaw up to the LORD & asked for HIS direction. "How in the world do I change the one thing that I use the most????" <---- The first thing proceeding out of my mouth, just smothered in frustration! Hahaha I was off to a good start, huh?

The LORD led me to Joyce Meyer's book: "Me and My Big Mouth". In her book she talks about the power of our words and mentions a "confessions" list she wrote years ago. I jumped out to her website & tracked down her confessions list. You can check it out here: http://joycemeyer.org/articles/ea.aspx?article=list_of_confessions_by_joyce_meyer.

I was immediately inspired. Yes! THIS is what I need! THIS is how I start speaking life & not death into my life!!!!

Being the organizational freak that I am, I decided the best way I was going to truly start teaching my tongue the PROPER way of the land was to put each and every confession on it's own flash card & start rehearsing each one separately. As if flash cards weren't dorky enough, I went out and bought COLORED flash cards! Yes, I'm sort of a Princess. So sue me.

I wrote down a confession on each card. I hung up a few around my house - one in my bathroom, one in my kitchen, one on my bedroom dresser. My goal is to read those cards aloud each time I'm in the room. Each time I enter the kitchen, I want to read the card aloud. Each time I go into my bedroom, I want to read that card aloud. Each time I enter our bathroom, I want to read that card aloud. The rest of the cards I stuck in my purse. My goal is to take the first card on top & for one week, read the card aloud everyday. After that week passes, I'll move that card to the bottom of the pile and start the week fresh with the one below it. Whenever I'm waiting for the bus, or at the gym, or waiting for a movie to start, or on my lunch break at work...whenever I find a moment, I want to read the card aloud. The more I read the card aloud, the more I'm confident that the words will be written on my heart & I'll start to produce an entirely different fruit in my life.

I'm not perfect. But I'm GOD's daughter & I have HIS grace to do whatever I set my mind & heart to. With HIS strength, I'll succeed.

I'm choosing "life" this year and I couldn't be more excited for the harvest that is to come from that.