Day 6, 100 Days to Brave, devotional: The Lies You Believe

I am such a bookworm and lover of reading. Granted, I like what I like, so your recommended book may never appeal to me- regardless of how you insist that it changed your life.
To that point, there are a few books I would insist have changed my life, as well.

One of them is a precious book titled, The Bluebird and the Sparrow.  The author, a woman named Janette Oak, must have been a great author because someone owned about 100 of her books and then donated them to the on-site thrift store we had at the LA. Dream Center.  My guess is that each book was well-loved and the hope was that they would continue to be well-read and appreciated by the volunteers, workers, and disciples. (The latter being the male and female adults and youth who lived on-site in the discipleship programs.)

Although I made a  good dent through the stack of her books while I lived there (at the Dream Center, not the thrift shop), only this one book sticks out in my memory.


                                           

You see, for years...and still...I struggle with liking myself. With being OK and more-than-OK with myself. I struggle to like myself. To feel my worth. To believe I am who God says I am.
I struggle.

In the book, Berta is the older sister to the precious, lovable, and beautiful Glenna. Berta is overcome with jealousy and anger towards her sister, and allows this to cause a rift between them which lasts into adulthood. As a child, Berta bought the lie that she was less-than. As a result, she struggled her entire life believing that she was unlovable. Boy can I relate to Berta.

Annie writes this:

See, your struggle to separate truth from lies is something every human wrestles with. 

...You hear a lie, you treat it like truth, and it begins to define you, like a label. 

And then you act out of that label.

Berta did. I did. Sometimes I still do.
Is it fair to assume that most people struggle with knowing, accepting, and loving who they are? When a bad hair day, or no likes on a Facebook post, have the ability to tell us our worth? Houston, we have a problem. 

This is proof that we listen to the lies.

The takeaway from today: 

Be Brave: Read the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17). 

What are some labels other people gave David? 

Which ones were actually true? 

Consider this today, friends. Consider Berta, and David. Consider yourself. What are the lies being said to and about you? What will you do to combat them? Reading the Bible as today's takeaway was no coincidence, Annie wants us to open our Bibles. Here, in the Bible, we read truth. Truth about God and truth about us. We hear God speaking over us, and this combats the lies we hear. This is our anchor. This is where we find our bravery.

P.s. my responses are below...but I encourage you to read this Scripture for yourself.

Labels given to David:
*son of Jesse
*brother
*shepherd
*full of pride and deceit
*ridiculous...only a boy
*ruddy-faced boy

David was labeled as "not enough". Only a boy...only a shepherd...
He was labeled as ridiculous and prideful, deceitful and, once again, only a boy.