I’ve shared with him before that he and his brother are the reason why my belly is that way. I have cut out bread, increased my time at the gym, and watched everything I put in my body, but this jelly belly persists. Am I outraged by his insensitive remarks? Not really. I feel the same way, I just prefer to find other reasons to compensate for the loss of girth in that area. But the real issue that needs to be addressed is what do you do when people tell you the painful truth?
Some people say things about you just to be hurtful and they know as well as you, that what they’re saying isn’t true. But when people say things about us that are true, but they are sensitive areas, we immediately make up excuses and even deny the truth. We essentially lie to ourselves, and we know we’re lying. How do we stop this bad habit of lying to ourselves, come clean, and accept the truth? Verse 7 says ‘Let them drink to forget their poverty and remember their troubles no more.’ This is us. We don’t want to accept the things that others see about us that we don’t like to acknowledge, so we drink ourselves happy with lies to forget the truth.
The truth can hurt, but if people you trust are breaking the news to you that something about you is not right, don’t lie about, acknowledge the truth and make a plan to fix what’s wrong. If someone mentions that you’re always complaining, take note of what you say and try to decrease the amount of complaining in your conversations. And don’t just fix the problem when the truthbearer is around, make a consistent effort to improve in your areas of weakness. Now there are some that say, “I ain’t changing for nobody, I like myself”. You may find that you are the only one that likes you and that everyone else tolerates you. If you find it hard to make relationships, be happy in relationships or to keep them, be real with yourself. Are you boasting your weak areas as your strengths? Are you ignoring all of the cues, hints and/or words from others towards you in regards to your problem areas? Don’t. Embracing the truth and moving toward a solution to your problems is much more invigorating and rewarding than lying to yourself.
When you’ve done all you can do to rectify your problem, and it persists, get professional help. In my situation, it’s probably time for a personal trainer. I’ve made gains but now I’m plateauing. Reaching a plateau point is not equivalent to reaching a goal. You’ll know you reached your goal when the problem area is no longer a topic of conversation and when you stop lying about it. You won’t have any trouble talking about your problem area because it will no longer be a problem.
References: Proverbs 31:7
