Who do you think you are?

Being a lover of all things Spice, it was inevitable that at some point these five ladies would find their way to the opening of a post.

This post sadly is not an homage to Girl Power, but rather about the question they ask

|| Who do you think you are?

Recently I was visiting a church and the preacher began with the philosophical proposition

“I think, therefore I am” Descartes

Thankfully I hadn’t stumbled back into my A level Philosophy class but rather he was taking the phrase, using it instead to illustrate the power of words. He went on to describe the behaviour of a team he once coached. Mindset affected their behaviour: if they believed they were winners the played like winners if they looked at the opposition as winners they gave up before even starting.

|| Who do you think you are?

I love the word ‘therefore’, it appeals to my brain because it alludes to a prelude; something has come before which allows a therefore to appear. It is a transitional word, it speaks of build up, it is the key change, the stirring spirit, the pivot. As the old adage says we must ask “What is the, therefore, there for?”

|| Who do you think you are?

In one of the workshops I run with teenage girls, we talk about the power of words. We wonder with them about words affect mind and behaviour. We talk about words we speak over others, ourselves or that are spoken over us. Often I have heard this from them: who says the words matters. I tell them I agree because the words I say over myself are powerful: some of the words have influence because of who first spoke them some have power because no one ever contradicted them, all have power because I allow myself to repeat them and ever so slightly believe them. How I think about myself affects opportunities I take, relationships I have, my personal emotional well-being.

|| Who do you think you are?

In one session, we wrote theses words we half believed onto luggage labels. The girls and the team shared openly about our feelings surrounding these words. During the conversation, one girl had stayed quiet but when prompted share that these words made her angry:

“they are not true, and they shouldn’t be the way we think about ourselves”

she said all she wanted to do was rip them up. So we did.

|| Who do you think you are?

I am aware, tearing up labels no matter how powerful is not an overnight fix. There is more than just destroying what you are not. We must develop a new mindset to think on who we actually are. There are words I believe about myself which rear their ugly heads like the villain in a cartoon who is reluctant to stay dead. If I do not have a new ‘therefore’ then I will return to believe the old.

|| Who do you think you are?

“Let me stop you there… on whose authority can you make this claim?”

During the EU referendum, this quote from a Radio 4 interview just wouldn’t leave me. There was something stickable about it but it was not referring to the EU – not for me anyway.

As I reflected on the preach, I thought about who I think, and say I am. A word began to come clear, a strong hold, a persistent villain and God repeated this line “on whose authority do you make this claim. Who are you giving a higher authority to over me!”

I realised what the girls say is true, it does matter who says these words. But it is deeper than that, it is about how much authority I allow that word or voice. Believing those set of words about myself was choosing to give someone else a higher authority than God, who does not speak them over me.

|| Who do you think you are?

The Spice girls were a 5 piece pop band, they were different but equal and they celebrated that. What if, instead of tearing down with words we should be using them to built each other up. What if when we hear someone say something untrue about themselves, we refuse to play empathy “me too” or one-upmanship “I’m so much worse” and rather stand for truth

“let me stop you there, on whose authority can you make this claim? 

I think therefore I am, is not about thinking of yourself more highly than you ought but about a platform of truth that you choose to stand on. I believe if we make this transition to thinking right of ourselves it will not just transform our own lives but those around us too.

So in the words of girls of Spice, who’s up for making the transition to believing correctly who we are and learning to Swing it, shake it, move it, make it, trust, use, prove, groove!

#christianity #spicegirls #names #christian #faith #words #unlockingseries