•Saturday, June 13, 2009
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” John 8:32.
Every night I read to my daughter. Lately we’ve been reading “The Secret Garden.” As with everything, I use it as a learning opportunity to explain broad concepts that will be valuable to Grace throughout her life.
Mary’s cousin, Colin, has been bedridden all his life. He is ten years old. What has kept him locked away in his room, hiding from the world? The crippling belief that he is sickly, looks like a hunchback, and will die young. But as Mary spends time with him, she realizes that these are false messages that Colin has internalized. And she refuses to reinforce them. Instead, she helps him to discover the strength and courage that he’d possessed all along--only he didn’t know it.
Does this resonate in your soul like it does in mine? How many false messages have we internalized through the years? How many times have we allowed other people’s issues to influence how we felt about ourselves? Or simply accepted the “whims of fate” as divine decrees? Life goes wrong. People hurt us through harsh words, betrayal and selfishness. But these do not reflect on who we are.
Do you really know who God has made you to be? Ask him to open your eyes to the false messages that you have internalized, and to allow you to see yourself as God sees you. Like Colin, we have been crippled by false beliefs about ourselves. But God can set us free.
Every night I read to my daughter. Lately we’ve been reading “The Secret Garden.” As with everything, I use it as a learning opportunity to explain broad concepts that will be valuable to Grace throughout her life.
Mary’s cousin, Colin, has been bedridden all his life. He is ten years old. What has kept him locked away in his room, hiding from the world? The crippling belief that he is sickly, looks like a hunchback, and will die young. But as Mary spends time with him, she realizes that these are false messages that Colin has internalized. And she refuses to reinforce them. Instead, she helps him to discover the strength and courage that he’d possessed all along--only he didn’t know it.
Does this resonate in your soul like it does in mine? How many false messages have we internalized through the years? How many times have we allowed other people’s issues to influence how we felt about ourselves? Or simply accepted the “whims of fate” as divine decrees? Life goes wrong. People hurt us through harsh words, betrayal and selfishness. But these do not reflect on who we are.
Do you really know who God has made you to be? Ask him to open your eyes to the false messages that you have internalized, and to allow you to see yourself as God sees you. Like Colin, we have been crippled by false beliefs about ourselves. But God can set us free.
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1 comments:
Again this speaks to where I was at and still am struggling. You are a voice crying truth in the wilderness. Rock on sister!!! :)