When You Feel Like You're Not Good Enough
Last night at church the message was about spiritual attack and lies from Satan that distract us from doing God's work or tempt us to get off track.
I lead a small group of amazing middle school girls that I love so much, and our discussion after the message was great.
A couple weeks ago, I was talking to one of my best friends on the phone (she's in San Antonio) and she brought up a good point - Satan knows exactly how to tempt girls/women. He knows that we are, for the most part, concerned with our looks and being accepted and admired, and he uses that to feed us lies and try to get us off track.
Last night we talked about how with social media, it's harder than ever for girls and women not to compare themselves to others. With filters and HD photos and the ability to post only your best pictures and make it look like life is perfect, it's easy to scroll through the Instagram news feed and start to feel really bad about your own self because everyone else looks so perfect.
This is exactly what Satan wants. Ladies, he wants to attack your self-esteem and get you to think about and dwell on
how many likes you get
how perfect YOUR pictures look
how perfect your life is NOT
how are these other girls so perfect?!
They have perfect lives
and perfect looks
and perfect bodies
and perfect hair
and perfect friends
and perfect boyfriends
and perfect clothes
and lots of likes
and people love them
......and that's the opposite of my life...
and I'm not good enough.
LIES!!!!
Satan knows if he can get you into this rut - this negative thinking - that these thoughts will control you and get you down and keep you from getting involved in activities and investing in others, serving the Lord, etc.
Teaching high school and being involved on college campuses for different things, I really see the reality of this. It makes me so sad to know how genuinely concerned young ladies are about posting pictures that they think will get a lot of likes, and how genuinely crushed they are if the pictures don't get the amount that they desire.
How genuinely worthless they feel when they see another girl who gets more likes.
Ladies, social media can be used for SO MUCH good, but it can also be SO DESTRUCTIVE, very often without even meaning to. These girls don't post 'perfect' pictures to make YOU feel bad -- you feel bad because you are listening to Satan's lies!
IF you know you can't look at social media without feeling down about yourself, don't look at it!
Spend time in God's word, reading scripture and letting the Lord pour His truth into you.
His truth:
You ARE a child of the King - Galatians 3:26
You are worth more than gold - Proverbs 31
You are precious - Isaiah 43:4
You are STRONG - Proverbs 31
You are ONE OF A KIND - Psalm 139:14
You are favored - Psalm 5:12
You are blessed - Deuteronomy 28:1-14
He loves you just the way you are - John 3:16
Because HE created you just the way He wanted you to be - Genesis 1:26
And remember:
*Never compare your life to someone's 'highlight reel.'
*That means:
-You know your life and it's a rollercoaster. Lots of ups and downs.
-Every single girl on Instagram has a rollercoaster life, just like you.
-Just because they don't post pictures of their tears and struggles and eating disorders and fights with parents and breakups and bad grades and not-so-cute outfits does NOT mean these things don't happen to them.
-No one's life is perfect, no matter how perfect it looks on Instagram.
I lead a small group of amazing middle school girls that I love so much, and our discussion after the message was great.
A couple weeks ago, I was talking to one of my best friends on the phone (she's in San Antonio) and she brought up a good point - Satan knows exactly how to tempt girls/women. He knows that we are, for the most part, concerned with our looks and being accepted and admired, and he uses that to feed us lies and try to get us off track.
Last night we talked about how with social media, it's harder than ever for girls and women not to compare themselves to others. With filters and HD photos and the ability to post only your best pictures and make it look like life is perfect, it's easy to scroll through the Instagram news feed and start to feel really bad about your own self because everyone else looks so perfect.
This is exactly what Satan wants. Ladies, he wants to attack your self-esteem and get you to think about and dwell on
how many likes you get
how perfect YOUR pictures look
how perfect your life is NOT
how are these other girls so perfect?!
They have perfect lives
and perfect looks
and perfect bodies
and perfect hair
and perfect friends
and perfect boyfriends
and perfect clothes
and lots of likes
and people love them
......and that's the opposite of my life...
and I'm not good enough.
LIES!!!!
Satan knows if he can get you into this rut - this negative thinking - that these thoughts will control you and get you down and keep you from getting involved in activities and investing in others, serving the Lord, etc.
Teaching high school and being involved on college campuses for different things, I really see the reality of this. It makes me so sad to know how genuinely concerned young ladies are about posting pictures that they think will get a lot of likes, and how genuinely crushed they are if the pictures don't get the amount that they desire.
How genuinely worthless they feel when they see another girl who gets more likes.
Ladies, social media can be used for SO MUCH good, but it can also be SO DESTRUCTIVE, very often without even meaning to. These girls don't post 'perfect' pictures to make YOU feel bad -- you feel bad because you are listening to Satan's lies!
IF you know you can't look at social media without feeling down about yourself, don't look at it!
Spend time in God's word, reading scripture and letting the Lord pour His truth into you.
His truth:
You ARE a child of the King - Galatians 3:26
You are worth more than gold - Proverbs 31
You are precious - Isaiah 43:4
You are STRONG - Proverbs 31
You are ONE OF A KIND - Psalm 139:14
You are favored - Psalm 5:12
You are blessed - Deuteronomy 28:1-14
He loves you just the way you are - John 3:16
Because HE created you just the way He wanted you to be - Genesis 1:26
When you start learning and growing in the Lord, your self-esteem will increase and you won't worry as much about other girls and compare yourselves to them. You will go about your merry way, serving the Lord and feeling fulfilled in HIS love.
And remember:
*Never compare your life to someone's 'highlight reel.'
*That means:
-You know your life and it's a rollercoaster. Lots of ups and downs.
-Every single girl on Instagram has a rollercoaster life, just like you.
-Just because they don't post pictures of their tears and struggles and eating disorders and fights with parents and breakups and bad grades and not-so-cute outfits does NOT mean these things don't happen to them.
-No one's life is perfect, no matter how perfect it looks on Instagram.
Don't believe the lies!
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