I’d like to give a shout out to Brene Brown for her contributions to today’s thought. Among many life-changing ideas, she writes about the difference between guilt and shame. Guilt has the potential to be productive, it’s behavior-oriented and capable of inducing change. Shame is debilitating, soul-crushing and ALWAYS destructive. Guilt says I made a mistake and I can change. Shame says I am a mistake and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Although we all pack around far more guilt than necessary, it is important to make sure that it’s guilt we’re carrying as opposed to shame. This distinction is vital when it comes to matters of the soul. The adversary relentlessly uses shame to make us doubt our worthiness to approach God, ask forgiveness, change, grow, serve Him and be loved by Him. This argument, made even easier by our mortal distance from our Father, would have us believe that we are not worthy to approach or be seen as we are by God. Satan works tirelessly to have us to believe this. Do you?