Choose Truth!

Hello all! Over the past few weeks, I've been praying for guidance on what to post about next and was, honestly, just kind of hoping for God to reveal to me something my readers needed to hear. Instead, He gave me a huge reality check and shook my brain. I felt convicted and challenged and definitely humbled so now I would like to share about it with y'all!

This is my best attempt to paraphrase what The Lord was trying to tell me: "Mary Catherine, you cannot hold onto worldly thoughts and desires any longer. This world tells you the complete opposite of what I tell you. Worldly thinking and heavenly thinking cannot coexist."

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

Ever since my senior year started, I've been trying so hard to live a life based on worldly desires and to satisfy opinions of worldly people while at the same time trying to seek out what God wants of me and to please Him. Let me tell you...it's exhausting. Absolutely exhausting. Don't try it. What I've discovered through this is that this broken, fallen world is the complete opposite of the Kingdom of God. It sounds silly saying that I didn't realize that until now; it's such an obvious fact told to us over and over again. But it's not so much that I didn't know it to be true, it's that I didn't live in that truth.

I'd like to take this post to compare some of the lies that the world tells us to the truth that God has shown us over and over since the beginning of time.

What the world tells us:

• Titles, labels, status, and stereotypes matter. Try to be someone who impresses people and who people feel cool to be around.

• If you cannot please the people around you, you are doing something wrong.

• You must do everything you can to try and find someone who will love you and make feel important. Life will be better with a significant other to lean on. If you cannot find one, lower your standards.

• Beauty is a clear face. Beauty is a cute, skinny body. Beauty is pretty long hair. Beauty is a cute nose, good smile, tan skin....(I could go on forever). Beauty is important, people must not see your flaws.

• Don't ask for help. Don't be vulnerable. You cannot trust people and you cannot look weak. You must rely on yourself to keep it all together.

• You have your whole life to figure things out. If you're young, make mistakes and don't worry if you feel like you're doing the wrong thing...you have so much time to do the right thing when you're older.

• Do whatever you can to make yourself happy. Your happiness is what matters most and if that means the expense of others' happiness, it's worth it.

• Gossiping is normal. It's okay to talk about people who you believe aren't as good as you or seem to make mistakes more than you.

What God tells us:

• You are His child. That is the only title that matters. All other titles and statuses that seem to be important now will fade and God's children will be exalted.

"But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then." Matthew 19:30

• He loves everything about you and is completely pleased with who you are, after all He made you. Instead of exhausting yourself trying to please people whose attitudes and opinions are constantly changing, spend time doing what is pleasing to God whose plans for you are solid and unchanging. 

"Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant." Galatians 1:10

• An intimate relationship with your Creator is the most precious, fulfilling thing. One day He will provide someone who will love you in the best way a human could, but no human love will bring the satisfaction God can. Singleness is a gift. Spend time falling in love with Him. 

"Your unfailing love is better to me than life itself; how I praise you! I will honor you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy." Psalm 63:3-5

• Beauty is exactly how God made you. A beautiful person is one whose heart belongs to God. That is the beauty that lasts and that is the beauty that matters.

"You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you." Song of Solomon 4:7

"But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." 1 Peter 3:4

• We must surround ourselves with people we can lean on and we must reveal to them our struggles and our flaws. We are not designed to do life alone and we are not designed to be invincible. Humans are weak and our lives are messy; the only way to survive is to let God speak to us and comfort us not only through our relationship with Him but through our relationship with others.

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend." Proverbs 27:17

• We are not promised another day. We cannot be selfish and put God on the back-burner for when we are older so we can have "fun" and make mistakes now. We must surrender each and every day to Him, not just the future.

"How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, 'If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.'” James 4:14, 15

• Loving on others and serving them will bring you more joy than you could imagine. God's two greatest commandments are to love Him and love others...loving yourself isn't part of the equation.

"We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters." 1 John 3:16

• We tend to gossip when we are insecure about ourselves. But slandering our brothers and sister breaks God's heart, because we are insulting His precious creations. Everyone is equal in His eyes and it is not our job to judge those around us. Focus on your own shortcomings and love others in spite of theirs.

"Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous? Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies!" Psalm 12, 13

These are just a few examples of the lies the world tries to tell us. I could give you more, but my guess is that you have probably picked up on the fact that most everything the world tells us is completely the opposite of what The Lord tells us. The difference is that the word of God is truth and this truth is the way to a fulfilling life. I knew a lot of these things before my reality check, but selfishly, I caved into the world believing that it could bring me more joy than living righteously could. Now I have made the choice to live in the Truth. I'm going to stumble and I'm going to stray, but I have faith that my God will pull me right back like He always has. I pray that you will desire to live in the Truth and will find tremendous joy in doing so. Thanks for reading. God bless you all :)

"And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?" Matthew 16:26