I’ve found myself in a season of rewiring. After working in the same place for more than 10 years, I’m in a new job. There are new tools to learn how to use, new people to learn how to work with, a new culture to adapt to, and a fresh new opportunity to explore what I can do.

A couple weeks into the job, and I realized that wasn’t the only rewiring I had to do.

One of my closest friends invited a few of us out to lunch on a Thursday. While I enjoyed their company, I found myself feeling incredibly uncomfortable - stepping out for lunch in the middle of a workday, something that was looked down upon where I come from. Instead of being immersed in the jokes and updates, my mind was at “work.” Would my new colleagues see me as unproductive or a fraud? Should I rush home and get back to work? Before I knew it, I was going down a rabbit hole I dug based on hurtful words and experiences from my previous workplace. My new colleagues didn’t say anything; in fact they were all out to lunch too. But somehow, I passed on my previous experiences as baggage.

The worst part of this exercise was coming to the realization that I took some of their words as truth. That I made it my identity, and I was living it.

Studies show that we think nearly 80,000 thoughts a day. 80% of those thoughts would be categorized as negative, most especially when thinking about ourselves.

But what does the good Lord have to say about that?

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And take every thought captive to obey Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5

A mentor once told me a quote she heard from her pastor. He said, “I can’t afford to think thoughts of me that God wouldn’t think.”

My eyes were instantly opened with that statement. Have you ever paused to think about what God says about you? Or that person who offended you? Have you ever nipped a hurtful thought right in the bud? Have you ever allowed God to tell you who you are?

Take EVERY thought captive. Make them obedient to Christ. He that is loving, peaceful, merciful, gracious and graceful, kind, caring, compassionate, thoughtful, wonderful, patient, joyful….

If we put our words up to a mirror, would they reflect Christ? We are made in the image of God. So they should.

I understand how difficult it can be to undo the hurt others’ word choices have caused us. To undo the lies we believed, or the identities we took on. But if we surrender the pain to the Lord, and ask for support with every thought that flows after, we can finally heal. A healed spirit can endure. “And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” Romans 5:4

And a confident hope of salvation thinks Godly thoughts because it recognizes our true identity: Child of God.