Learning I was the voice in my head. Learning to take back my power. Seeking, discovering, and believing Truth. Letting my roots grow down deep into God’s love for me. Experiencing God’s love, knowing His hope, and living from there, is the better Way.

Lots of people make New Year’s resolutions or set goals for changing something in their life at the beginning of the year.

When I came to really understand that I choose what I think that my thoughts give me the results of my life and I began to practice thinking new thoughts my life began to change.

Usually when we want to change something about our life, we think we need to focus on the end result, and our actions that will get us to that result. I have come to understand that since it is our thinking that determines our actions, we need to do the internal work of changing our thoughts first. If we just start trying to change our actions, it might work for a little while but most likely we will return to our old behaviors once our willpower runs out. If we are intentional about changing our thinking, then we will begin to see the lasting results we want.

This is a process. This takes intentional work. It will not happen overnight, and we must be diligent.

Often our actions are procrastination or feeling “stuck,” shaming ourselves, seeking temporary comfort, focusing on everything that is wrong, which leaves us feeling unhappy and unfulfilled. We take these actions because something we are thinking is fueling these results. If we feel overwhelmed or stressed, then we are going to tend to want to do nothing productive and binge on Netflix or/and eat cookies. If we think something is wrong with us or we “should be” further along we are most likely going to shame ourselves feel bad binge on Netflix and eat cookies. Often our thinking is that “this is just the way I am,” “I’ll never change,” so we in essence give-up and don’t try to create something different. Or even if we do try to do something different when we face obstacles or opposition, we give-up. The reason is because we haven’t realized the power of our mind.

Our thoughts give us the results of our lives. What we believe determines how we behave. If we want to make lasting changes, we must think new thoughts and believe new things. We must renew our mind on God’s Truth. We must practice awareness around what we are thinking then take our negative, unhelpful thoughts captive and replace them with Truth, positive, helpful thoughts.

Too often we are looking to things outside ourselves or other people to make us feel good, appreciated, supported, loved, valuable, or whatever else we want to feel about ourselves. We tend to think that our circumstances determine the quality of our life. When we do this, we give our power away, and we are giving away ownership of our lives.

If we can understand and realize that our thoughts give us the results of our lives. If we can truly believe that what we think determines how we feel and from our feelings we act, then we can take our power back and begin to change. When we realize that we can choose what we think, because whatever we look for we will see, then with our thoughts we can begin to create new, better, beneficial feelings.

I used to think I was unworthy, unlovable, and underappreciated, which caused me to feel bad about myself. I wanted other people to love me, appreciate me, make me feel worthy. I had expectations of others. I thought they should tell me they love me, tell me I was doing good, tell me they appreciated all my hard work. When I thought those thoughts what I saw was all the ways I was unworthy, unlovable, and underappreciated, all the ways people didn’t show up for me.

As I began to change my thinking and renew my mind on Truth by reminding myself daily, moment by moment at first, that I am a child of God, that I am loved by the King, that my worth and value are in Jesus Christ who loves me completely. I began to see the ways I am worthy, I am loved, and I am appreciated. I started generating these feelings for myself. I began to believe what God says about me regardless of what anyone else says or does. I began to cultivate nourishing rhythms for myself and stopped expecting other people to give me what I needed/wanted. Who knows better that you what you need or want?

I took my power back and decided to take ownership of my life. There is freedom in this. There is a miracle and mystery in this process as you trust in God and rely on Him to help you become.

You decide to show up for yourself. Take radical ownership for your life. Believe what is possible. We stop living from lack, blame, shame, unmet expectations, and unrealized potential and instead live from abundance, love, and faith!

Our thoughts give us the results of our lives. We choose what we think!

I encourage you to decide to show up for you!

Whatever thing you are trying to change about yourself, whatever goal you want to achieve this year, I hope first you will do a little investigating into your thoughts, discover what is fueling your actions. I encourage you to seek God first, renew your mind on His Truth, know you are loved by Him just as you are. You are enough!

I have found that as I seek God, renew my mind on His Truth, live believing in His goodness and grace for me, I begin to change for the better. Knowing you are loved completely allows you to show up in love for others, it just overflows out of you. Knowing you are loved completely and trusting in what God says about you, you begin to get different results in your life. Knowing you are loved completely and trusting in what God says about you lose interest in worrying about what other people think about you because you are more interested in how can you share God’s love with them.

Who you become in this process is the prize!

Your thoughts give you the results of your life. Decide to do the intentional work of getting curious about your thinking and replacing the negative, unhelpful, often untrue thoughts with God’s Truth, with beneficial thoughts. This takes practice! Practice, practice, practice. Think. Act. Believe. And you will become. You’ve got this. You are resilient. You can change.

Keep seeking and discovering God’s better Way!