I'm going to be honest: there are a lot of days that I just don't feel like I'm good enough. I make an extremely stupid mistake. Something so stupid that I can't even figure out how I did it. It just happens... more times than I care to admit.
For example: I'll be taking a test, and I feel pretty good throughout the test. After it's over, I think "Hey, those questions were pretty easy. I probably got an A." Then, my teacher grades it and gives it back... and I messed up like the easiest questions in the world. I'm looking back and it's just so simple, but I messed it up! How did I do it?
Or when I was working my first job and my boss told me "Careful with that," and two seconds later I smack the object onto the wall. It doesn't even make sense.
Or I have an important paper I need to hold on to. I walk to the car with it, leave it in the backseat while I go somewhere, and then drive back, and when I walk inside, my dad asks me for the paper. I go to get it for him, and it's gone. Nowhere to be found. How can anyone make such a dumb mistake? Where could it have possibly gone?? I left it in the car, but it wasn't there. It wasn't in the yard. It doesn't even make sense. What could I possibly have done?
I try. I really do. But no matter what I do, I seem to make some stupid mistake. But what I've realized is that everyone makes dumb mistakes. Now, obviously, I'm a little more negligent and unobservant than most people. But over these past few months, I've started to beat myself up more and more over these things. And while they're not things I should just blow off, I need to learn to make up for the mistake and get over it. Because I make these mistakes often, and if I can't stop beating myself up about them, I'm going to go through life depressed because I can't stop thinking "Man, I'm so dumb. I can't believe I did that stupid thing yesterday." And I'll go through life having no happiness, no joy, nothing but sadness and self-pity. And that's wrong.
I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and do something that will matter. I've started hating myself and asking God "Why? Why me? Why can't I do anything right?" when I should be asking, "God, please help me to be more focused and spend my time wisely." Because in the end, all that time I spend feeling sorry for myself, what does it amount to?
I know self-pity is wrong. God doesn't make us feel guilty about the things we've done wrong. That's from Satan. He tries to make us feel guilty and feel like we're not worth it. But that ends today. James 4:7 says "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." And that's what I'm going to do. Because I know that Jesus has already won the battle.
--Do you ever feel like you're just not good enough? What do you do when this happens? Spend some time with God today and ask him to help you resist against self-pity or anything else the devil may throw against you.