Awesome By Association.

Is it just me, or is life ridiculously busy right now? Maybe I'm tired. I think we are always busy. Every one always seems tired, or run down or time poor. We live fast don't we. Faster than I ever did as a child. In so many ways it seems so much more productive, and yet in other ways I feel ripped off.

Like the other day I had to wait for someone while Bella and I were in the car, and for a second I held her hand. Then I found myself really looking for a long time. I found myself intricately looking over her finger prints, her nail bed, the texture of her skin, softness of her little fingers. 

I over look that treasure every day. 

Recently I was having one of those days, where your mind is on fire with thoughts of doubt and heaviness. I'd been feeling pretty gross about the fact that I even need medication to live a normal life, plus the affect it has on my once athletic body, long and short term. I Was being overcome with thoughts about not being the best version of myself, not being someone that people want to follow. Not being enough. Over thinking, over analysing, completely self focused.

As I was being assaulted by these ongoing thoughts and allowing them to swim in my mind, I was stuck at a red light near home. 

A bunch of GGHS girls walked past and smiled and waved, almost interrupting the relentless onslaught that my brain was unleashing. 

 At that moment , all was silenced. 

Like a sharp knife, truth cut through the lies. Clear as anything, gentle as a whisper, I heard the voice of heaven:

 " they need you Lisa, as you are." 

Until that point in the day, I'd been questioning everything. Everything. 

Over and over. Obsessively. Myself mainly.

 But also ministry, how time consuming, heart consuming , mind consuming it is. I had the thoughts of letting it all go, just being there for my kids all the time, whenever they need. Thoughts of living a relatively simple life. It teased and taunted me and presented itself as a wonderful option. To turn it all in, and just live for myself. 

As inviting as that thought was, one look, connection, smile...and my heart was once again captured and under the spell of these teenagers roaming my neighbourhood. They are longing for love, acceptance, hope. It's not like we follow kids around and beg them to listen, these kids are actively seeking someone to look to. I cannot say no. I won't. 

Even though my brain begs for me to watch Netflix and plod along in life, I am compelled by Jesus and who He is, to be what I can to those around me. Literally as I scramble with my notes and get thoughts down while sitting on my balcony , they walk past my house.
Giggling, talking, dreaming, fearing, searching... 

There they are. 

Alive and Longing for someone to show them a different way than what they know. I'd rather die tired and full. I'd rather look back and think, gee we were on the run, but gee it was worth it all. These are hearts , inside bodies, walking around in a culture and world that screams at them to give up. Screams at them from every media source that they are not and never will be enough. However much older I am, however much more life experience I have , I still come under the same character assassination. I still feel the same pressure, I still come undone. 

How do we expect young, sincere, Innocent hearts to thrive in this world, when the pressure is so strong that even we too, are impacted?
We need more voices. More every day people giving them another option. Another voice piecing through the lies. I'm learning that even moment counts. Every interaction, conversation, every second of their young lives, it is an opportunity to shape their minds and hearts into something new. 

The thing about our thoughts, is that if we don't give them direction and correction, they roam free. They gain momentum. They gain strength, and they mislead us until we arrive at this horrid place, and we don't even know how. Like a snowball gaining momentum as it tumbles, thoughts grow. Swiftly. 

Something I have had to learn, re-learn and re-learn again, is to make sure my thoughts align with the Word of God, if they don't, chances are that I'm listening to a lie. Thoughts are just that, thoughts. It's when we buy into them , that we give them power. I actually tell myself to shut up :)  I must look like a crazy person...funny that ;) 

Each morning I come before Jesus and hand over control of my mind and thoughts and ask for His hand of protection over my brain. But as much as we can ask God to do that, we ultimately make the choice to stop that lie from roaming our minds as it pleases. I'm already teaching my kids to take control of their thought life, it's an anxiety-tactic and I figure it will protect them in the future, should anything mental illness related pop up in their own lives. Please God , no. 

Don't fear your thoughts. Don't give them power. Sometimes I get so sick of myself and I have to say: "RIGHT! Thoughts, you know what, you can be there all you like, but that doesn't mean anything. You will pass."

Starving those lies is what ultimately kills them. Filling your mind with the truth, what Jesus says about His creation, overrides anything the world throws at us.

But how do we tell the next generation this? We show them. But to show them, we must first have the revelation ourselves. We are made in the image of the creator. I recently spoke at a leadership training day about the difference between arrogance and confidence. That there is actually a way to be able to love the person God made you to be, and be really proud of that.  We are, after all, His handiwork. It's ok to like who He created you to be. I think it's so powerful to be a person of influence that knows who they are, and functions in that freedom that Jesus gives. To say to the world that places value on the perishable, that who we are in character and heart, is where the value lies. There is nothing I love more than journeying with teenagers and watching them really get this. Watching them begin to find and fall in love with the person God made them to be. In doing this, in believing the words Jesus has written about us, we are being him to the people around us. 

" I love the person I've become, because I fought hard to become her."

Together, let's never stop striving for and pushing through to a better way to live, than this world offers. It isn't easy. But it is better. 

As always, it is better together. 

Believe  the truth, you are a pearl of great price, a child of the King.

 By all rights, Royalty. 

Not because of what you do, but because of who you belong to. 

All my love xx