Lies

Psalm 109:  2-4: For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.  They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.  In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.

Lies.  We all hear them.  We all listen to them. We all have probably even said one or two.

I was home by myself with my six year old and my six month old the other night. As I watched them play, laugh, and love; my heart broke.  Why?  Why in such a joy filled moment did my heart fall apart?  Because, in that moment, I felt such a burden for what they would hear from the world throughout their lives.

You see, I have spent my entire life listening to lies.  Lies about what I should look like, lies about how much I should weigh, lies about my career, lies about how I should parent, lies about how to be a good person, and the list goes on.  In the moment mentioned above, I just wanted to grab both of my children and hide. I wanted to hide them from the lies.

They will hear lies.  No matter how hard I try to protect them……….they will hear lies. They will feel bad about themselves at some point.  They will, unfortunately, buy into some of these lies.  And no matter how hard my husband and I try to combat these lies, they will still hear them.  They will still feel them.

So, coming to terms with the fact that the lies will fill a space in my children’s head, the question then became, how do I help them fight against the lies?  How do I undo what the world tells them?  How do I make sure they are strong in who they are?  How do I help them navigate such an awful fact of life, when I myself struggle in this area?

The answer is simple.  I pray.  I pray that God fills their head with truth.  I pray that God gives Kevin and I the words to say when they express the lies they have been told.  I pray that our children will be strong, and stubborn enough, to stand in their truth.  I pray that I can model how to ignore the lies, and seek the truth.

What lies are you currently listening to?  What has this, sometimes ugly, world made you believe about yourself?  Stop listening to the lies.  Pray.  Stand strong.  Find your truth.  Stand against the lies.

You are strong. You are worthy.  You are you, and that is exactly who you are supposed to be.