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Tenacity Talk: Discouragment

We ALL deal with discouragement at some points in our life. In my quiet time earlier this week, I was praying about some of my friends dealing with this (knowing, of course, how often I deal with it myself) and I felt strongly that I needed to share the two main reasons we become discouraged- at least two reasons I've noticed within my own struggles.
Why do we need to know the reasons we get discouraged? So that we can do something about it! And these are two things that every one of us can do SOMETHING about - so we don't have to stay in that space of discouragement!
Whether you're battling discouragement in your health or weight, or business, or family, or church....discouragement can come at you from any direction. I learned a long time ago how to deal with my discouragement, and while that doesn't mean I have it all figured out or that that I never get discouraged, it does mean that I've learned that discouragement is truly a tool that the enemy uses to PARALYZE us and make us ineffective.
A quote I learned years ago says:
The two things the enemy desires most are sinners and ineffective Christians.
And:
Delay in the body of Christ causes irreparable loss.
And we just don't have time to be paralyzed by discouragement. Right, moms? Right, ministers? Right, entrepreneurs? I mean, who has time for all that? Ain't nobody got time for that. ;-)
See, I believe that there are times we actually allow ourselves to get put into that box of discouragement - that prison of discouragement.
The first way we allow ourselves to be imprisoned by discouragement is by allowing ourselves to fall into the trap of COMPARISON. I believe we (especially women) have been conditioned to compare our looks, our sizes, our bank accounts, our houses, our children, our husbands, our jobs, our churches.... we've been taught to compare EVERYTHING, and that's simply wrong. It's a tool of the enemy and it will bring discouragement to you quicker than just about anything else. Because while we're busy comparing everything that makes us unique, the enemy is busy planting seeds of doubt and discouragement about everything we're comparing... Why can't I be that size? Why can't my thighs look like hers? Look how her husband holds her door for her, what's mine holding?? Her child got straight A's - what did I do to make my child so unteachable?? (see how unrealistic you can get with these comparisons?)
Second after our penchant for comparison, our discouragement could be simply caused by the fact that you (or we) are not doing what you (or we) know to do. Let's take my health for example: If I know what to do to lose weight (I do), but I chose not to do what I know to do, then I'll start feeling guilty because I'm not doing what I know to do to get better. That guilt morphs into discouragement because I start thinking "I'll never get thin, I'll never have good will power, I'll never be able to walk without pain", etc, etc. That discouragement paralyzes me from making better choices, so I'm making more bad choices, that I then feel guilty about, that I wind up becoming discouraged over...you see what a vicious cycle that is, right?
Sometimes the best way to get out of that trap of discouragement is to take action. Stop the cycle of inaction > guilt > discouragment > paralysis.... Do what you know to do, and let the Lord take over.
I go into more detail about this in my video here:


What do you do to get over discouragement? What have you overcome lately that you can share with us? Leave a comment below!
#struggle #discouragement #encouragement #entrepreneur #parenting #children #anxiety #health #depression

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