Posted: Only Grace and Truth Allowed

Today, I saw another reason God set this study before me. I have two daughters who are right this very minute outfitting their thought closet. I know that my bins and shelves started filling themselves up full of lies when I was young. I guess this must be a female phenomena or something. (Thus the reason no one, NO ONE, is allowed to tell Sarah she is a true blond any more or tell her she is an airhead. She is really just the opposite, but is learning at 3 years old that if she becomes this flighty little thing people think it is cute and help her more and give her attention. I do not want her to put this on as her wardrobe.) We start early telling ourselves lies (good or bad) about our body image, our intelligence level, our persona... don't we? Today in a fit of rage against herself, Olivia came to me furiously crying and said, "I guess I am just a bad hat maker." You see she had made a paper hat (a very good one I might add) and decorated it and folded and taped it to fit her head, but it would not stay on. She disappeared for a long time in her room then came back with it and had punched holes in it and tied ribbons on it to tie it under her chin. When she put it on, the ribbons ripped off. She went out of her mind in a rage against herself. I saw right then that she needed me to teach her how to tell herself the truth.

How can I teach her something that I do not do myself? I figure this is why God has put this lesson in front of me. In the lesson today, we learned that Christ's words were full of grace and truth and so should our words to each other and our selves. I ask myself this question: "Self, are the names you call yourself gifts and are they the truth?" "No", the names I usually call myself-- stupid, fat, lazy, selfish, lousy... these are not gift worthy.

I want to quote something Jennifer says on page 30: "Sister here's the hard truth. To call yourself an untruthful, harsh name is a sin. It is an insult to God, demeans His workmanship, and devalues His creation."

I am going to leave you with these verses she left us to dwell upon for the rest of the night. So as she puts it, "If you are a name-caller, meditatate on these scriptures:

Proverbs 3:3  Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

Proverbs 8:7 My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness.

Proverbs 12:17 A truthful witness gives honest testimony, but a false witness tells lies.


(I guess the name calling thing could also be if you call others names like this, but I am sure none of us has ever called anyone else stupid or worse and demeaned God's workmanship... A WHOLE different lessson I suppose.)

As I write this, it just dawned on me. In our house the word stupid is not a word we are allowed to use-- say it accidentally in front of Sarah and she will tell you, "that is NOT a word we use". It never occured to me that it is just as bad for me to call myself that word.