Normally, after a few conversations with someone new, I will blurt out that I am awkward. I always saw this as a preamble to the inevitable slip up of words or odd facial expression to come. I remember saying this to someone who told me that they didn’t view me as awkward at all until I said something. This totally floored me!

I’ve been thinking a lot of how our insecurities often dictate how we perceive our situations. I have been working on positive thinking over negative thinking and as I start to do this, I am seeing how a negative point of view colors our perception of reality. I often have to talk myself out of misinterpreting a conversation to lean towards my worst opinions of myself. These are things we have to pay attention to or we can ruin the areas of life that mean the most to us.

For instance, an insecure person in a healthy relationship will project their insecurities onto their partner. If you are bending toward feeling like a failure in past relationships or that you are unworthy of the love that you are receiving, you can subtly inform the dynamics of your relationship to these beliefs. You can take a comment, an action or even an inaction and mold it to your fears about the relationship. This tends to cause more arguments and miscommunication and sometimes the complete dissolution of a potentially good situation. Think about how negative thoughts like these have impacted our friendships, work life and family life as well.

Even more so, these insecurities can dictate how we view the love of God. Sometimes we misunderstand the depth of His love for us and His grace as though we are unworthy. And compared to His greatness,we are. Yet His love for us doesn’t falter.

The reality is you are always going to face insecurities as you learn, grow and stretch yourself to new levels. Its normal. However, it is necessary to capture those negative thoughts and speak over yourself with reality and God’s truth before you begin to project those insecurities into the world. This is something I am practicing every day.