You are good enough. You are strong enough. You are pretty enough. You are courageous enough. You work hard enough. You are enough.

If you’re anything like me, arguments and disbelief about why you are not __________ enough are running through your head. Every time you look in the mirror, every time you yell at your kids, every time you fail at achieving your goal tells you otherwise. Or at least, that’s what we tell ourselves.

The truth of the matter is, you are enough. Every part of you was perfectly, fearfully, and wonderfully made with incredible purpose. God said that He formed you to His exquisite specifications and set before you a glorious purpose (Ephesians 2:10) that you can only achieve in Him.

The hard part is we try to live up to standards for which we were never created. We try to attain perfection as the world understands: perfect face, perfect body, perfect in parenting, perfect wife, perfect career. We were not created for this. Conversely, we were created for perfect love, perfect joy, perfect peace, perfect righteousness. Those are the standards to which we should hold ourselves. Even then, we fall short.

Only when we give our lives to God can we begin to attain the standards for which we were made. When we rest in God—give our will, minds, actions, and futures—to Him, we begin to see ourselves through His eyes. When we choose to seek God above everything else, there is a secret benefit of change in how we begin to see ourselves and others. We begin to see ourselves as the masterpieces God created, instead of inadequate, shame-filled, stressed-out women who are found wanting. We begin to see those previous standards as empty and vain—worthless. Those standards begin to lose their power over our minds. Instead, we are empowered with the Spirit of God: our pasts become testimonies of God’s goodness; our presents—a witness to God’s faithfulness; and our futures—limitless in God’s power.

What chains of untruths bind you from living life free of self-defeating thoughts? Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!” (emphasis added). You were not meant to live a life bound to self-doubt. Isn’t it time you give it up? At some point, you have to believe God when He says that you are a masterpiece, crowned in glory above the angels (Psalm 8:5).

Ephesians 6:17 says that our only offensive weapon against these kinds of self-defeating thoughts are the words of the living God: Scripture. When you begin to doubt yourself, when you face a seemingly-insurmountable task, when your relationships are failing, when you don’t like what you see in the mirror—you must turn to the only unchanging Truth. Repeat Scripture to yourself over and over again until those feelings subside.

Emotions and thoughts are so fickle; therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we do not let ourselves listen to them. We must stand on the Truth, the Word of God. Whatever your “_______________________ enough” is, go find a Scripture that tells you the truth (searching for “Scripture against _______________” usually works). And, honey, you cling to that Word until it is written on your heart and impressed on your brain.