How To Stand Up For Yourself

1 Timothy 4:12 "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young." When I take a look at this scripture, I hear God telling Timothy to not let people treat him any different just because he is younger than they are. I also hear God encouraging Timothy to stand up for himself when he has to. You may be allowing people to walk all over you, say whatever they feel to you, and you just sit there and take it. You probably bite your tongue often because you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings but there is nobody caring about your feelings and how they just hurt them.

I used to allow people to say whatever they liked to me. I would just take it and hold it inside and get all angry and mad at the person. I couldn't figure out why I wouldn't say anything back to them. All of this stopped when a friend pointed out to me the reason why I allowed people to say whatever they liked to me and why I wouldn't speak up for myself. He told me that the reason I didn't feel the need to stand up for myself was because I didn't love myself.

This could be the same problem that you have in your life. You don't love yourself enough to stand up for yourself. You stand up for others, such as your mother, friends and your child, because you love them. But when it comes down to you, you don't care what people say to you, you just take it and hold it in because, after all, you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. You don't want to start any drama.

Here are some tips to help you stand up for yourself:

1. Identify the problem at hand. What I mean by that is, when you start feeling yourself backing down from a person, I want you to ask yourself a question. What exactly about this person am I afraid of? Identifying why you are afraid of this person will help you to better stand up for yourself. You just might find out that you really having nothing to be afraid of with this person.

2. Stop caring about peoples' feelings. Now let me explain exactly what I mean by stop caring about peoples' feelings. If a person is clearly being mean, nasty or disrespectful toward you and not caring about how they are making you feel or have hurt your feelings then stop caring about theirs. Say what's really on your mind to them. Some people, if they think they can control you, will try to. If you give them the vibe that you're timid and won't stand up for yourself, they will run all over you. That is why you have to show people that you have a mind of your own and you don't mind speaking it.

3. Use wisdom. Some people are just negative and full of drama and like to see you drawn up inside it. If they think they can push your buttons then that's exactly what they will try to do. Use your God-given wisdom when dealing with people. If you are sensing those things from a person, just walk away because you don't know what's really behind that. It could be the Devil using that person to destroy your day or bring you down, so don't even entertain them.

If you are still having problems with standing up for yourself then download your free chapters of my new upcoming book "The Confident Sista Handbook" to help you learn how to stand up for yourself.