Getting rid of labels

This year I have decided to part with labels.  Since I am doing this I wanted to repost a blog post I shared on my other blog last year....slightly edited to take out the irrelevant parts that applied to the bible study on Unglued by Lysa Terkuerst.

Labels, well they can be pretty damaging.  I have labeled myself over the years, and allowed others to label me.  Labels such as

•  Depressed
• Social Anxiety Disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Lazy
• Worthless

Labels can be very hurtful, and using those labels as the way we identify ourselves can be very dangerous to our sense of self.   I know that for me I have allowed labels to define me before, and my guess is that you have as well.

I think from the few I mentioned above the one that did the most damage was the label of worthless.  I believed this label for many years.  It changed how I approached life, how I approached others, and how I approached myself.  But instead of writing about the mess that created for me, today, I would like to focus on something Lysa says in her book....

"A soul who believes she can't leave.....doesn't"

I can so relate to that statement because I found that when I felt so worthless, and felt that I didn't deserve anymore....I never tried to break free.  Lysa goes on to say that some prisons don't require bars, just the persons perception that they belong there.  That was so true for me....because until I started to realize my own worth, and my worth to God...I never tried to change things, even in my mind.  I was very much a prisoner to myself.

Lysa goes on to tell us how to break free from the labels.  I think that this is also very important to go through the steps to do this, because until we start to quit being defined by our labels, we will never be what God has called for us to be.

I am looking forward to seeing what other things Lysa has to share in her book.  Hoping today that you start to see the labels by which you define yourself.