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Drama Queen

             The Lord will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. (Deuteronomy 31:5-7)

It’s being a whimpery morning and I need this. There’s nothing really wrong, except that I can’t get to work on this, that, and the other because I have to leave for work in 15 minutes. The drama queen enters, stage center (because she’s always at stage center) with her tale of woe because what has not been done yet today will never get done. It’s all over because she (the Fat Lady) is singing. At the end of the day, she returns with a song of how badly I failed, no matter how much I got done.

Maybe this isn’t quite your mental battle, but chances are you have one and that it’s recurrent. Maybe your drama queen sings about what a horrible wife, mother, daughter, sister, neighbor, employee, Christian,  or ______ you’ve been or are being. Maybe it’s something else. We may even know that we’re not being fair to ourselves, but that doesn’t change our perspectives. Or, it doesn’t change mine. Something more is needed.

Awareness or consciousness is the first thing we need. Some of this is so habitual we don’t realize we’re doing it. The second thing is a decision to resist. The third thing (not surprisingly) is courage. It may also be called perseverance or self-control. We must act on our decision to resist, even when it is easier to just listen to the drama queen belt out her tune. I’ve heard the suggestion of naming your internal enemies. You can then say, “No, _____, I don’t have time to listen to your song today. I am going to listen to the hero instead. God and I have things to do."

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