Girls and Lies

Right now I have about sixty little scraps of paper in a Michael's bag in the sock drawer of my bed. Not a big deal. Except that really I don't like the bag being so close to me while I sleep. But I know if I move it I'll forget to pray over it. And I feel the need to pray over it because on each scrap of paper are written lies that come straight from hell.

This weekend I went to camp and spoke to approximately 50 plus high school girls on where our identity is found and how that shapes the way we live and the way we act. Also we talked about some of the lies that we believe and allow ourselves to be defined by, specifically in regards to love, because that was the theme. And when I was done I asked the girls to write down, anonymously, on a piece of paper the lie that they most believed about themselves that was affecting the way they lived. And then I collected them. And then on another piece of paper I asked them to write down the lie and underneath to write down a verse that speaks against that lie for them to keep. Here were some of the responses;

You read these responses and there's no much hurt and insecurity and rejection and shame. And the girls cranked these out in no time. It did not take them more than a few minutes to know what they wanted to put on that paper.

Also, most of the things written on the papers were repeats. I think there were only a couple that said something completely unique. And I bet if you asked a group of 1000 girls you'd still get the same 15 answers from all of them.

So those are the thoughts that are driving most high school girls to act the way they do. All of them admittedly working from these places of hurt and searching for ways to heal that hurt. Looking to anything and everything for approval. And they're wearing themselves out and coming up exhausted and with greater pain.

And Jesus hung for that.

Hung so we could avoid that.

Hung so that we could be free from the the need for approval from others because we now have access to his approval, and He runs things.

But we have to believe it. And then we have to live it.

Practice What You Preach

"She started carrying a purse full of peppermints earlier than most"-- my gravestone

If I were completely honest, then I would have to admit that I sometimes worry I'm going to end up being an old spinster with a cat and a garden and the boxed set of Golden Girls on dvd. Complete with bonus features for those extra lonely nights when I just need a fresh laugh.

And all the children of the children I now spend my current life babysitting, will refer to me as nanna and ask me to tell them stories of when I watched their parents and all the shenanigans they got into. Oh the shenanigans!

It could be fun actually.

It also sounds like my worst nightmare and I pray it doesn't come true.

Segue

I'm supposed to be speaking to high school girls this weekend on the importance of finding our identity in how God defines us and not anything else. And I don't know that I've ever been given more opportunities to remember that than this week.

Funny.

But not haha funny.

More like really God you had to make sure I was serious about it? funny.

Which isn't funny at all.

It has actually been really exhausting.

But a good kind of exhausting in that I can now speak with confidence that yes, surrendering your future over to the lord is a very difficult thing to do, (and I'm sure I haven't struggled with the last of it), BUT it is the only thing that has ever brought me any real joy.

Believe that or not. It is the truth.