Identity - Paint the Wall

Created in the image of God. ~Genesis 1:27~
You're not just beautiful, you are flawless. ~Song of Solomon 4:7~
You won't be forever single. ~Isaiah 34:16~
You life has a plan that is bigger than your wildest dreams. ~Ephesians 3:20~
These are rarely the thoughts we think when we think about ourselves.
Why is it so easy to believe these truths about other people, while our own internal commentary goes more like:
Wow, good morning zit face.
Too bad you don't have a body like hers.
You get married? There is a reason you haven't had a date in a year.
You'll never be as good at the job as she was. You're too forgetful.
Can you get anything right?
Nothing ever goes good for you. Just settle for mediocre.

We believe the Bible. Of corse! But, we somehow have a hard time believing what it says can actually be true of ourselves - especially when it comes to our identity.
Our identities have been so bombarded about what we should be, and how we should look, and how we are suppose to dress, and the way we are suppose to act that we lose sight of the one we were created to be.
Every time we have these self deprecating thoughts we are actually insulting God. He is the one who created you to look and be like the very person you are {:I'm not saying we can't all do a little self-improvement, I am just saying overall:}. Not only did he create you, but He did so and then said it YOU were good.
You are good!
So many of us have lived for years with this negative self-talk. We have to start taking those thoughts captive and replacing them with the Word of God. You don't have to believe it right away, but do it anyway.
Someone once explained it to me in this way: It is like a wall that has been painted red. When you decide to repaint it white, it will take several coats. After the first coat it becomes pink. After the second coat it becomes a softer pink and so on and so forth until coat after coat there is no sign of the red wall anymore.
Our thoughts are much like this. We have to repaint the walls of our brain with the white paint of the Word until the red paint of the world is no longer visible. But just like painting that wall, it doesn't happen instantly. It is a process, but a process that must be started to ever be completed.