Overcomer!

Now, that’s a toughie.

Why?

Fear and Self-Doubt are the twin demons I’m mano ye mono with on a daily, sometimes minute-to-minute basis.

You’d think that wouldn’t be the case for people who know me. I’ve done more in one life than a dozen people do in a lifetime. I’ve walked in and out of situations I didn’t have a right to be carried out of, and yet I beat the odds every time. I can walk into a job or position using a certain technology knowing nothing about what I’m doing, and by the end of the week I know more than the people who built the technology.

And yet there’s Fear and Doubt.

Why?

In the past, I’ve always fallen back and recalled that I have certain God-given gifts and that I’m fearfully and wonderfully made.

But the demons are still there. Whispering that I’m just not good enough, which makes me fearful that at the end of it all, I’m a fraud. And everyone knows it. That no matter what I do, I’m simply not good enough.

Recently, I began a process called The Freedom Prayer. Yep, it’s all about freeing oneself from sin.

Now, here’s part of the problem. We all know sin is what we do. But there’s something also called Generation Sins.

This is the so-called Sins of the Fathers. And whether or not we want to admit it, what our ancestors did affects us today. The past shapes us because either they knowingly or unknowingly entered into a contract, so to speak. This gives a legal right for attitudes and thinking to be passed from one generation to another.

In my case, those attitudes and words were spoken into my soul. Observational evidence supported that.

Need an example. Here’s the one I heard the most: “You’re really not as smart as you think you are.”

Then, “Only stupid people think that way.” Because I questioned everything.

And then there’s the ever-popular: “You’re just a dumb Mexican.” A statement I found odd in the extreme, considering I was born in the USA, pay my taxes to the USA, and wore my country’s uniform.

Or, the worst of all, “You’ll never amount to anything. Stay in your station in life and don’t try.”

Of course, there was the default fallback: “There’s something wrong with you upstairs.” There might be some truth to that. After all, how many people strap on a six-gun to make a living or tilt against windmills and impossible odds. I prefer to think of it as courage, though.

There’s a spreadsheet in the book where you list these things that come to mind. Fear and Self-Doubt are at the top of that list.

And you pray against them.

What you’re doing is reminding yourself and these demons that you will not allow yourself to listen anymore.

You’re telling yourself that you’re going to survive.

You’re going to overcome!

You’re going to keep going.

And most importantly, they have no power over you. They are lies told by people who know no better.

And you remind yourself who you are.

And who you belong to.

So, those demons are attitudes or whatever can go to hell.

I’ve still got my eyes set on the stars.

You can find “The Prayer of Freedom” by Beatty Carmichael by clicking on the book name.