rebelling against low expectations
Do you feel pressure to make up for your sin, or “clean yourself up” before coming to God? Even though you know that God’s grace is a free gift, do you sometimes feel unworthy of it? Or maybe you’re a slave to other’s opinions of you and need to be accepted in their eyes in order to feel okay. I have some news for you: you’re not good enough. And though this...
Am I enough? So many teens walk around today asking themselves, “Am I enough?” The world gives us two opposite messages: They boost our self esteem and praise us for our works, looks, job, etc. They destroy our self esteem by telling us all that we aren’t. I don’t know about you, but I get sent the second one far more many times than the first. I feel that I can’t measure up, please everyone, or...
“Be okay with missing out,” I told a living room full of middle school girls. “You don’t have to be a part of every single activity or conversation.” We were talking about friendship, but the concept is relevant to so many areas of our lives: be okay with missing out. Easier said than done, I know. We want to be a part of everything. We want to be a part of not only conversations and activities...
When I was in middle school and high school, people started to notice I didn’t look quite like everyone else. I was very skinny and all of the sudden I started earning new nicknames: Twig, Chicken Legs, Little Liz. Kids started asking questions and making comments: Are you eating? Look how skinny your arms are! You’re so skinny, if you turned sideways you’d disappear! Do you have an eating...
Teenagers. We’re a bunch of kid-adults who often have no idea who we are or who we ought to be. We grasp at all kinds of things to find identity, things like beauty, sports, and intelligence. And for so long, I’ve prided myself in being above those things. Maybe all the rest of the world cares about beauty and sports and intelligence, but in the words of the Little Red Hen’s friends when she...
Let me set the scene. It’s a weekday night at Yogurtland, and I’m finishing the yummy dessert with my mom and two sisters. All of a sudden, a song I like comes on overhead, and I point it out to my mom. “Hey, it’s the song from that movie!” My mom looks at me and says, “You know, Anna, it doesn’t take much to make you happy.” Elaborating, she adds, “You have such low expectations for life and...
I’m sure you’ve all experienced being labeled something. The world labels people by what they do and what they look like, instead of who they really are. For me, I struggle with defining myself by my disability. It’s hard being visually impaired sometimes. Some of the simplest tasks can be so frustrating. There are also a lot of different awkward social situations that can happen. For example, if...
Insecurity: uncertainty or anxiety about oneself; lack of confidence. I hate that word. I hate the meaning of the word. I hate the reality surrounding it. Why would a Christian struggle with insecurity? Why would a Christian worry about what people think of them? Why would a Christian lack confidence? If I didn’t know better, I’d say those Christians are sorry excuses for Christians, that they...
rebelling against low expectations
