“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reels.”
-Pastor Steve Furtick

Note: Every  year I try to read “The Screwtape Letters” by C. S. Lewis. With astounding accuracy, Lewis makes the devil and his cohorts very, very, real. So, borrowing from his style, I like to make negative, unhealthy behaviors real. Paint them in the light of how they actually infect my daily life. I’ve also created a worksheet and a PPT for you. Hopefully, it will help you on your Spring Tune Up journey.

Download:

Inside the Heart of Insecurity PDF

Inside the Heart of Insecurity PPT

Ephesians 4:27
“Do not give the devil a foothold [an opportunity].”

Inside the Heart of Insecurity

It’s Spring Tune Up time.

Today, I want to introduce my guest, Insecurity. From the outside, she looks absolutely normal, sometimes even perfect. No evidence that she actually has a million self-loathing thoughts whirling through her mind—holding her body down like a wrestler pinned on a mat. She’s really good at fooling others and even better at fooling herself.

Insecurity Looks Around at Everyone Else

She wasn’t born insecure, I don’t think, but at some point in her life, something or someone intersected her path that actually allowed her once healthy sense of self to begin doubting.

I actually believe that Ole’ Red Tail (also known as the devil, Lucifer, Satan), gets his toe in the door of her life and begins to cast his haunting spell.

Start looking around.

Start comparing yourself.

Start thinking, I don’t look like the girl everyone likes. I don’t dress like the girl everyone likes. I don’t act like the girl everyone likes.

When I Met Insecurity for the First Time

Since we’re tuning up, I thought it might help if I start first.

Let me welcome Vulnerability into my life and introduce her to Insecurity. A wrestling match, you might say.

I don’t know exactly when ORT (Ole Red Tail) put his toe in the door of my life, but I’m guessing it was around 6th grade. Or at the latest, 7th grade. I know it was middle school. Sparrow Road Elementary in Chesapeake, to be exact. I started noticing that I was definitely not “the cool” type.

C’mon, pretty stylish and seemingly comfortable in my skin (smile).

Looking pretty secure, here. Don’t you think?
(Practical Exercise #1: Go through your old pictures,
especially if you deal with insecurities,
and see if you can pinpoint “a change” in your demeanor.
Your countenance. You may or may not,
but I can sense the “emotions” of the moment
on my personal timeline.)

Here is where I believe I first really “sensed” or “noticed” my new found insecure self.

Go ahead, snicker. Who wouldn’t feel a bit “self-conscious” when she is about 6’3 on point shoes. Gauky. Red hair when red hair wasn’t cool.

When I Met Security for the First Time

I’ve shared this sliver of my Spring Tune Up with you, not to bore you with a slideshow of my childhood, but to poke and prod you to do some heart work of your own.

Spring, after all, is a time for new beginnings and endless possibilities.

I don’t want Insecurity to take one more minute of your life. No, I want to pin it on the mat and hold up your arm, declaring you VICTORIOUS!

I met Security, for the first time, In 1980, when I met Jesus Christ in my dorm room. Together, we started to overcome Insecurity in my life.

We’ve had a few hundred talks between then and now.

And, then, I met Security head on, this past year. We have become hard and fast friends.

Insecurity no longer exists in my world.

Oh, there are moments, like when I walked into Harris Teeter on Wednesday, my face looking a bit like I’d been seriously burned. I found myself looking down alot.

And, then, I stopped and said, “Girl, hold your head up high. You have a face. You have a nose. For crying out loud.”

That was Security taking over. Reminding me that we had pinned Insecurity down for good.

Will you join me?

Oh, I am praying for you, right now. Take a deep breath and invite Security into your heart, one healthy thought at a time. Share your journey with us. It helps so much to know how your overcome.