This is something that we have all dealt with at some point in our lives. Truth versus lies is probably the longest struggle in all of history. It should be easy to differentiate between the two. Sometimes though that is my greatest struggle.

Advice that I have given students over and over and over again is that Satan is a master at deception. He doesn’t have to destroy your life in one day. He only has to get you to make one bad decision after another and slowly you end up far away from where you started. He slips lies into your thoughts. Those whispers of lies can have an impact on how you view yourself and others. This deception can hurt relationships and your own self worth.

The absolute worst part is that Satan knows your weak areas. He knows what lies will cause the most damage. He knows what he can whisper in your ear in such a way that you struggle to not believe it. You find yourself allowing the lies to tell you more about yourself than your very Creator.

Help us, Jesus.

It happens to all of us. No one is perfect. We all have weak spots, past circumstances or sins that create easy targets.

I’ve shared on here before that I didn’t have the easiest life as a teenager. My relationship with my mom was very broken.

I never had a career in mind growing up. I knew I liked photography and I even thought about being a teacher. I just wasn’t sure. I only knew one thing for sure. I wanted to be a great mom. I wanted to have a happy family. I wanted to be the team mom that spends her time running kids around and has a cooler of Capri Suns in the back of the mini van.

I love my kids. I love our family.

But there are times….

Times when Otis and I might not agree (ok,ok we are fighting about whatever) …. Satan whispers in my ear that my marriage is not any better then the marriage of my parents. And even though my marriage is nothing like theirs… and we have beaten the statistics, since we have already been married longer than they ever were. Those lies still attack me every now and then.

Times when I’m having a tough moment with my kids. Moments when I doubt our calling to homeschool. Even moments when I end up losing my cool and yelling at them out of anger. The enemy whispers to me that I am no different than her. That my kids are going to look back on their childhood and remember that mommy yells when she gets mad. That I am not any better and I will never change the cycle.

Those moments pierce my very soul.

They tend to leave me broken and emotional. If I linger on them- listening to the lies and allowing them to echo in my heart- I feel worthless.

But those lies are NOT the truth.

I know my God that has transformed my life. I know that Otis and I have built a life that breaks several cycles that we faced growing up. I know that even though I am not a perfect parent, that I am a good parent. I know that His grace covers me…. even when I yell.

And some of you might even be surprised to read any of my above confessions. I might appear to be a pinterest mom that has it all together. And I try to be that a lot of the time. 😂😂 We all have times when life is messy.

All of that to say this… It’s so important to know the truth. Know what God says about you. Know that you are His treasure and that your worth is so much more than past circumstances. The things you went through in the past may have left scars on your heart, but it does not define your future. You have to have it engraved in your heart whose you are. If you don’t know for sure who you are, then lies will try to creep in and define you.

My hope and my life are found in the truth.

“Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭25:5‬ ‭NLT‬‬