Tactics
So this past Sunday, our stake president taught the lesson in Relief Society. I can't quite explain to you guys how much I love that man! He's such an excellent speaker and he always seems to know exactly what to say. He's a particular favorite among the women because he knows how to uplift us in ways not many male speakers can. He understands how our minds work! At least that's my opinion. :)
At one point in his lesson, he asked us to pretend we were Satan. That's always fun. ;) He asked us what we would do to discourage women in this day and age. I suggested that I would turn a woman against herself if I needed to dishearten her and tear her down.
After all, we all know "the feeling". I'm going to give you a couple hints. See if you can figure it out :) {Granted, I've posted about this before here, here, and also, uh, here (sorta). so it won't take too much imagination.}
Yup. You guessed it. It's the feeling of 'not being good enough'; 'not being smart enough'; 'not being pretty enough'; 'not being as good of a homemaker/cook/mom/decorator/wife/kid transporter/blogger/etc'. I don't know why we do it. I honestly don't. Why do we compare ourselves to other women in a condescending way? Why, oh why? If I figure it out, I'll let ya'll know. But in the meantime, I'm going to share what our stake president said that has caused me some "Hmmmm!" and "Ah ha!" moments since.
I wish I could remember the exact words he used, but it went something like this: "When Satan wants to distract a man, he uses a woman's body. When he wants to distract a woman, he uses the same body."
Think about that for a minute. It's so true. That's sum mighty profound wisdom, right thar.
To be perfectly honest, the reason I pipped up in class and suggested that if I were Lucifer I would annihilate a woman's knowledge of her potential and worth by turning her against herself was because I had just recently pulled myself out of the pity pool of self-woe a day or two before {again}. I was feeling very poor as a mother. I didn't feel as though I was doing a very good job. Those thoughts quickly morphed into "I'm not a very good woman", which then took a turn toward degrading my looks. What started out as a small critical thought soon turned my entire mind into a graveyard for any positivity. What a vicious cycle!
I've noticed that about myself, and maybe you do it, too. When I get feeling piteous about one area of my life, pretty soon I'm feeling that way about practically every area of my life. It's almost as if Satan gets his huge, hairy, ugly foot in the door and plants feelings of inferiority in my head. Then he fans the flames and leads me to believe that I'm a failure in every respect simply because I may need a little improvement in another area.
My feelings of needing to improve as a mother have absolutely nothing to do with my appearance, right? Right. That's like saying that your nose is hideous because you painted your toes an ugly color. They have nothing to do with each other!
Satan uses our bodies, as well as the bodies of other women, to discourage us. He tries to get in our heads and turn us against ourselves. Please don't let him. We all struggle; it's true. But we don't need to let him win time after time! If you find yourself being sad about something, leave it at that. Don't let it snowball out of control like I tend to do. Make a battle plan to improve (if one is even needed. . . I seem to blow things out of proportion a lot and make up a problem where one doesn't really exist), and give Satan's huge, hairy, ugly foot a big ol' stomp to get it out of the door.
Each of us has more potential than we could ever comprehend. Another thing our stake president drilled into our heads was that we don't know how valiant we were in the pre-mortal life. We can't possibly know. It would boggle our minds if we did! We will one day have the veil lifted from our eyes and we will finally understand why were were saved to come forth on the earth at this particular time, but for right now, we're just going to have to believe that we were worth saving. And believe me, ladies, we were.
We can do anything and everything we set our minds to. Now don't let Satan tell you any different!
At one point in his lesson, he asked us to pretend we were Satan. That's always fun. ;) He asked us what we would do to discourage women in this day and age. I suggested that I would turn a woman against herself if I needed to dishearten her and tear her down.
After all, we all know "the feeling". I'm going to give you a couple hints. See if you can figure it out :) {Granted, I've posted about this before here, here, and also, uh, here (sorta). so it won't take too much imagination.}
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Yup. You guessed it. It's the feeling of 'not being good enough'; 'not being smart enough'; 'not being pretty enough'; 'not being as good of a homemaker/cook/mom/decorator/wife/kid transporter/blogger/etc'. I don't know why we do it. I honestly don't. Why do we compare ourselves to other women in a condescending way? Why, oh why? If I figure it out, I'll let ya'll know. But in the meantime, I'm going to share what our stake president said that has caused me some "Hmmmm!" and "Ah ha!" moments since.
I wish I could remember the exact words he used, but it went something like this: "When Satan wants to distract a man, he uses a woman's body. When he wants to distract a woman, he uses the same body."
Think about that for a minute. It's so true. That's sum mighty profound wisdom, right thar.
To be perfectly honest, the reason I pipped up in class and suggested that if I were Lucifer I would annihilate a woman's knowledge of her potential and worth by turning her against herself was because I had just recently pulled myself out of the pity pool of self-woe a day or two before {again}. I was feeling very poor as a mother. I didn't feel as though I was doing a very good job. Those thoughts quickly morphed into "I'm not a very good woman", which then took a turn toward degrading my looks. What started out as a small critical thought soon turned my entire mind into a graveyard for any positivity. What a vicious cycle!
I've noticed that about myself, and maybe you do it, too. When I get feeling piteous about one area of my life, pretty soon I'm feeling that way about practically every area of my life. It's almost as if Satan gets his huge, hairy, ugly foot in the door and plants feelings of inferiority in my head. Then he fans the flames and leads me to believe that I'm a failure in every respect simply because I may need a little improvement in another area.
My feelings of needing to improve as a mother have absolutely nothing to do with my appearance, right? Right. That's like saying that your nose is hideous because you painted your toes an ugly color. They have nothing to do with each other!
Satan uses our bodies, as well as the bodies of other women, to discourage us. He tries to get in our heads and turn us against ourselves. Please don't let him. We all struggle; it's true. But we don't need to let him win time after time! If you find yourself being sad about something, leave it at that. Don't let it snowball out of control like I tend to do. Make a battle plan to improve (if one is even needed. . . I seem to blow things out of proportion a lot and make up a problem where one doesn't really exist), and give Satan's huge, hairy, ugly foot a big ol' stomp to get it out of the door.
Each of us has more potential than we could ever comprehend. Another thing our stake president drilled into our heads was that we don't know how valiant we were in the pre-mortal life. We can't possibly know. It would boggle our minds if we did! We will one day have the veil lifted from our eyes and we will finally understand why were were saved to come forth on the earth at this particular time, but for right now, we're just going to have to believe that we were worth saving. And believe me, ladies, we were.
We can do anything and everything we set our minds to. Now don't let Satan tell you any different!
Just like you have written about this topic multiple times... you are inspired each and every time and each time I need a good reminder. :) I told my Husband James that I was doing a REALLY good job at combating my negative feelings about myself with positivity the past few months and then something happened. We started thinking about buying a house.. stress got in and snow ball affect. I started doubting everything in my life, and your totally right... They are not related and its a LIE! (ODD...how real it can feel though)
ReplyDeleteYou are totally right about not comparing, and I just wanted to add.. Not even comparing yourself to YOURSELF!! I a lot of the time.. get down on the things I "use to do better".. but at that time in my life my circumstances were different. I also think Satan will tell one truth.. and 9 lies. You may really need improvement on a area, but often I have found it is amplified. It's not as bad as it seems generally.
and concluding.. I like that you pointed out our potential and that we were saved for last.. Meaning this is a struggle I think all of us have, It will probably always be a battle given what day and age we are in, and what the media tells us we have to be... but with that knowledge we have understanding and will not be lead astray from who we are, and what we are here for and we can get a glimpse of not what the world sees in us.. but what our Father sees. Thank you Jess
Thanks for sharing that! That was an amazing quote. I guess the female body is incredibly powerful then: it can distract men, torture or praise women, is considered a work of art, bear children, on top of the normal job of keeping us alive! I guess all of Satan's attention on it means it's one of the most influential, sacred, special things on Earth!
ReplyDelete