Talk to Yourself

Hi! My name is Valencia, and every now & again (don’t …judge me - we’re in a safe zone)I talk to myself. Most of the time, its inaudible, but sometimes, it's a verbal thing. Yep. There have been times when I literally have Valencia meetings (total attendance: 2 - Valencia & Jesus), and start talking to myself. I’m not insane. I’m not delusional. I don’t (typically) respond to myself. It’s just that…every now & again, I need to have a chit chat with myself. I need to hear it, you know? Once I hear it, everything changes. Why? Like you, I become what I say. 

Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” A lot of church people, especially my fellow church kids, have heard this scripture multiple times. Yet, as always, my take on it may be slightly different. See, I don’t think that your “tongue” just includes…your tongue. I think that death & life are in the power of the things that you say, AND in the things you believe. The two are connected. What you say to yourself, verbally or internally, literally has the power to bring life or death…to your situation. So many times, we waste time running to people, telling all of our business, hoping that they’ll reveal the solution to our problems, when the solution to your problem is in how you talk to yourself. 

     Even if ‘talking to yourself’ doesn’t completely turn your situation around (which it can), it can give you enough life to get to the ultimate solution that you need. Don’t believe, check with the woman with the issue of blood in ______ (full blog post on that here). The entire time she was crawling to Jesus, she was talking to herself. With every move, she repeated “if I could just get to His hem….if I could just get to His hem…if I could just….”, and eventually, she was completely healed. I don’t think it would’ve worked out the same way if she kept telling herself “this is ridiculous. Somebody is going to find me & kill me. I have no business being here. This won’t end well. What if…”, she may not have even left her home. Her healing was in what she said to herself (even Jesus agreed, remember? “your faith has made you whole”). Yet, because she spoke her own words of affirmation, her own words of faith, her own words of hope, her own words of life, her story has been cemented in the pages of the Bible for centuries. What will your words of life do for you? 

     It’s imperative that you pay close attention to what you say, and what you believe, because if you’re not careful, you’ll be unknowingly walking in a state of ‘death’, and you won’t know why. Your relationship isn’t working because you aren’t putting the work necessary to keep it up. You aren’t putting in the work because you’ve told yourself that this is a waste of time. Your finances may not be where you want them because you have bad spending habits. You have bad spending habits because you haven’t changed your perspective. You haven’t changed your perspective because you’re still speaking words of death (this is just the way it is, I can’t afford to do x,y, or z, etc.). What you say to yourself influences what comes out of your mouth, and what comes out of your life will always produce the fruit (or lack thereof) that hangs over your head.

     I’ve learned that God is more worried about what you believe than He is about what outsiders believe. Throughout the Bible, there are plenty of things that place the power in what you say, and what you believe; I can’t think of too many (aka any) that place control over your life in somebody else’s mouth. Even in the Prov. 18:21, it says that those who speak death/life will eat what they say, so (in my head) what they say about you turns back on them before it ever sits on you! It’s incredibly easy to forget this (or to never catch it at all), because we live in a culture where we’re constantly taking in somebody else’s opinion. If you aren’t careful, you’ll live a life, think thoughts, etc. that somebody else created, OR you’ll shift your perception of the source of power. In God’s eyes, their opinion of you is irrelevant. The words of others can’t create a storm in your life without your permission or belief that they can impact your destiny. Isaiah 54:17 says that “no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn.” Don’t allow anybody to speak death over you, and don’t let them cause you to speak death over yourself. What other people say doesn’t even have power unless you give it power through confirmation or acceptance. God is concerned about what you say to yourself, not what they say to or about you. Let’s all be godly & do the same, yes? Yeeeessss….

     2 Cor. 4:13 says “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” I have loved this verse since I realized it existed, because it shows me that we have had it twisted for quite some time. Among other things, it showed me that what you say verbally is a direct reflection of what you say internally. Could it be that your current storm is your own creation? Did you create a hurricane….with your mouth? Did you speak a drought into existence? If you want to change your life, start by changing the way you talk about your life. Change the way that you think about your life, and you’ll change the way that you speak about your life. I’m literally living a life that I spoke into existence…because I believed that it could and would happen. For example, when I was in 8th grade, I looked at my mom & told her I’d go to UT for free. I said that completely ignorant of how much UT costs, what’s required to even ‘go to UT for free’, etc. That didn’t matter. I believed that I would go to UT for free, so I told my mom that I’d go to UT for free, and you’re currently reading a blog post authored by a woman who has a UT Austin degree on her wall…and went to UT on a full scholarship. That’s one example of soooo many more that prove that I spoke the life I currently have into existence. If I can walk in what I used to talk about, oh suga I know you can do the same. You’ve just got to believe what you say (to others, and more importantly, to yourself).

     I have one final story that’ll serve as our benediction. Yesterday, I had 3 ‘class prep routines’ (basically…reading & summarizing) that I wanted to get through before 6 p.m. because I realllllyyy didn’t want to read when I finally got back home. I woke up that morning HYPE (woo hoo productivity is ahead). Then…I went to work…and got distracted…and fell behind quiiite a bit. I got discouraged, and had bascially decided that I’d just bit the bullet & read these 3 million pages after I got home (at 8:30). That was what I told myself. Then, God stepped in, and said “I need you to understand something…it’s not too late.” That changed what I believed. Therefore, it changed what I said to myself. I finished all 3 million pages by 6 because I hustled to get it done. I hustled & focused to get it done, because I started talking to myself. I spoke life. I spoke productivity. I spoke completion….and I got all of that (with time to spare). I dare you to change what you say & what you believe. Speak life where you typically spoke death; see life where you typically saw death, and watch God turn what you say into what you walk in. You are your only limit. Actually, what you say is your only limit. Change your perspective. Change your speech. Change your life. It’s literally that simple. Happy talking (lol)!!!


Background music: Speak - Myron Butler & Lies - William Murphy

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