You are good enough

"Too many LDS singles don’t believe they’re good enough to secure the eternal blessings they desire primarily because they keep telling themselves that.  If that applies to you, here’s some free advice: Stop telling yourself you’re not good enough!"

Life has a way of feeling wearisome when all you can see is day-to-day drudgery.  Combine that with the normal human propensity to get caught up in one’s own world, and you have a sure-fire recipe for hopelessness.

Many LDS singles feel even more burdened when the drudgery they encounter is negative self-talk — negative messages one gives to oneself, often reminders of one’s failings, shortcomings, and inadequacies.  When you surround yourself constantly with negative messages, you’re likely to believe yourself.

It’s easiest to get this way when you have two very destructive habits:

1. You regularly participate in negative self-talk.
   
2. You constantly compare yourself to others.

These two habits combine to yield a harvest of hopelessness and despair for many LDS singles.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.  You can have joy in your journey regardless of your circumstances.  That joy comes easiest to you when you truly believe you are good enough.

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Watch your mouth

Too many LDS singles don’t believe they’re good enough to secure the eternal blessings they desire primarily because they keep telling themselves that.  If that applies to you, here’s some free advice: Stop telling yourself you’re not good enough!

Negative self-talk is one of the most destructive habits for LDS singles.  If this is your habit, then stop believing yourself and start believing the Lord.  He has declared that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (D&C 18:10).  And why do souls have such great worth?  The Lord gives the reason: Because He suffered the Atonement for all (D&C 18:11-12).

Why would Christ have suffered so much if your worth is so little?  He wouldn’t have.  He suffered tremendously for you because you are worth it.

That message, however, won’t remain with you if you have a habit of negative self-talk.  We can’t function without habits because we’re all designed to have them.  So unless you replace your negative habit with a positive one, you’ll always go back to your default option, which is the negative habit.  That means you must replace any habit of negative self-talk with a habit of positive self-talk.

Our focus becomes our reality.  If you’re tired of a negative reality, then stop having a negative focus.  Focus on the positive, and your reality will be positive.

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Stop the comparisons with others

Too many LDS singles also need to stop comparing themselves with others.  As if it were part of our design as human beings, we all seem to gain our sense of normal from those around us.  Perhaps that’s why not comparing themselves to others challenges so many.

Engaged in a habit of constant comparisons, we’ll constantly find the flaws in ourselves — the times when we failed, the imperfections that seem to disqualify us, and the moments in which we fell short.  Providing ourselves regularly with such a list just creates another channel for negative self-talk.

That’s why comparisons with others never end well.  We’re all so different that we’ll always find ourselves wanting somehow when measured against others.

Just as we need to replace negative self-talk habits with positive self-talk habits, we need to replace habits of comparing ourselves to others with habits of comparing ourselves to ourselves.  That really is the only fair comparison anyway.  Only you have been where you’ve been experiencing what you’ve experienced.

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Embrace the truth

Often the “evidences” that we provide ourselves through negative self-talk and comparing ourselves to others — “evidences” that we aren’t good enough — are simply lack of results.  We can think, I’m still single, so that must prove there’s something wrong with me.  Or perhaps our dating invitations have been rejected.  Or perhaps no one’s invited us on a date in some time, or even ever.

When we don’t have the results we want, it’s easy to conclude we aren’t good enough.  But concluding you aren’t good enough based on a lack of desired results is faulty logic.  You don’t get what you get based on who you are.  You get what you get based on what you do.  If you want better results, improve your approach.

You really should believe you are good enough if for no other reason than that you are.  If you don’t feel that truth inside you, then perhaps you’ve engaged bad habits of negative self-talk and comparing yourself with others for so long that it’s hard to believe anything else.

Start today to embrace habits of positive self-talk and comparing yourself only to yourself.  When you do, you can more easily embrace the truth of your own worth as a child of God.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

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You can listen to the monologue from today's episode of Joy In The Journey Radio here.  Please also feel free to continue the conversation by leaving a comment below.  Want to hear more?  Listen to the whole show by going to the show page for this episode!