What Lies Have You Allowed To Rule Over Your Life?

My husband bought an ugly Christmas sweater that said “Marty, no matter what happens, don’t ever go to 2020.”

2020 is almost over and we survived to tell the tale. I don’t know about you, but I learned a few lessons from this year. One lesson that I learned was that all of us can fall prey to deception. If we are not careful, these lies can rule over our whole lives. Here are some lies that I have a hard time letting go of.

Holding onto fears is productive.

Most of my fears involve my kids. I fear that someone will hurt them or that the world will be a complete nightmare for them when they grow up.

The truth is that fear is counterproductive, and it robs me of my joy.

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Matthew 6:25-27

I am not a worthwhile person when I mess up.

It has been difficult to process everything that has happened this year, and I haven’t always been wise about the way that I have expressed my feelings about what is going on in the world. I tend to have high expectations of myself, and when I don’t meet those expectations, I feel like I need to distance myself from people because I feel ashamed.

The truth is that no one is perfect, and I should not expect perfection from anyone, including myself. When I mess up, all I have to do is ask for forgiveness and let it go. This is not easy to do. I have heard that people that have a hard time forgiving themselves also have a hard time forgiving others. Maybe if I get better at forgiving myself, then I will get better at forgiving others!

My life must look a certain way for me to have joy.

It makes me sad to know that my kids have not been able to have a normal childhood—compared to what my childhood looked like—for almost a year now. I have been telling myself that I can handle whatever comes my way, but I get defensive and protective when I feel like my kids are being wronged.

Many other sad, crazy, unfair, and surprising things have happened this year. There were three deaths in my family (all unrelated to COVID-19). Despite all of this, there are always things to be thankful for, and I can choose to have joy no matter what is going on in my life.

What lies do you need to let go of?