By Lara Izokaitis
Have you experienced times when you seem to get hit a bit harder with lies in your mind? What impact do the thoughts you believe about yourself have on your mental health? And how do you handle these moments?
Recently, I had a dream where I was infected with a case of lice ( not to worry—I do not actually have lice!). The symbolic meaning of the dream has helped me personally to develop a tool of sorts to help wash and remove the lice of my mind, aka, the lies I’ve been believing.
In the dream, two people told me that they were infected by a case of lice and that I was, too. My heart sank at hearing this because I knew I would have to DEAL with the yuck on my head and that it would be a process of treatment over a several week period of time to truly get rid of the little buggers. After my first washing, I had my sister check my head to see if there was anything left of the parasites– hoping that was all it took to be rid of them. But unfortunately, I realized that it would take multiple washings over 2-3 weeks and ACTIVELY having to remove the lice in order to be free of them.
The hard reality was that it HAD to be done.
I want to suggest to you today that it’s the same when dealing with the LIES that have been latching on and infecting our minds. They have to be treated and removed.
If you look at how to deal with lice in the natural, it is a 2-3 week process before you are truly free from them. In the beginning of getting infested, the cleaning process is more intense. And it is overwhelming. EVERYthing needs to be washed with extra care given to the head. Your hair not only needs to be washed, but you also need to attend to the details of making sure to remove each individual louse. And, although you are the only one who truly deals with the squirms of the lice on your head, you do need the assistance of someone else to help with the washing and removing, hence the symbol of my sister’s helping hands in my dream.
It’s similar to when you get hit with a case of mind-lice: LIES. The lies are best treated when you, the individual, deal with them while also allowing someone else (God, a trusted loved one, pastor, or counselor) to help speak clarity and truth to you/about you.
HOW DO WE REMOVE “MIND-LICE”, aka LIES we are believing?
WASHINGS & REMOVAL (BOTH on repeat)
WASHING– We must wash our minds with cleansing thoughts about ourselves that are TRUE, edifying, loving, peace-filled, hope-filled, forgiving of self & others, and thoughts that speak of God’s TRUE heart about who we are. These thoughts are based on God’s word and are often best internalized when we allow others to speak them as healing truths over us.
REMOVING— We must also actively take captive those bugger-thoughts that are contrary to the above and wash our minds once again with the truth of God’s word.
Let’s look at two scriptures that help us in this:
First— (2 Corinthians 10: 3-5) “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
Second—(Philippians 4:8) “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”
It is up to us to take our thoughts captive and control them by focusing on what is true and what Jesus says about us.
I hope this tool and treatment plan helps you along your journey of bringing peace and cleansing freedom to your soul in dealing with lies (“mind-lice”). Always remember the TRUTH of WHO GOD SAYS YOU ARE!
Lara Izokaitis is an international speaker and author of Caterfly: Discover Who You Are & How a Mirror Can Change Your Life.
Lara loves encouraging people to achieve their dreams in the midst of adversity, and addresses beauty and identity, eating disorders and other real life issues young women face.
