I am absolutely weary of some of the memes aimed at Christian women these days. You know the ones I mean, ladies- the ones with lovely pictures of flowers or an ocean or a meadow with a superimposed flowing script practically BEGGING us to believe how much worth we have to God, how awesome we are, how we need to discover the greatness within, how God gives us limitless potential and a superfantastic divine purpose, blah, blah, blah.
You know why they have to take that begging tone to try to get us to believe those things? Because they’re not true. You know it, and I know it.
You’re not awesome or great or imbued with some radical purpose or potential that will magically make your life phenomenal and give you oodles of self esteem once you discover it.
You’re a dirty, stinking, rotten, rebellious sinner. You yell at your kids. You don’t submit to your husband. You act out of selfishness. You lie. You gossip. You covet. You bow down to your idols instead of to Christ. You sin against a holy and righteous God in a thousand ways every day in thought, word, and deed. Just like I do. Let’s put on our big girl panties and just admit it. (1 John 1:8,10)
That’s why these memes and false teachers have to try so hard to convince us of how terrific we are- deep down we know we’re not. It’s a lie. And putting all our eggs in the basket of that lie of greatness sets us up for disappointment and self-loathing every time we sin.
Ladies, stop listening to this hearts and flowers, cotton candy, pump up your ego so you’ll feel better about yourself dreck, and put your faith and hope in the One who will never let you down. The One who looked at all your nasty thoughts and evil deeds and said, “I’m going to the cross for her anyway.” The One who sees all your daily faults and failures and is still willing to forgive when you repent. The One who’s faithful to you even when you’re not faithful to Him.
Stop focusing on how great you are – because you’re not – and put your focus on Christ and how great, and awesome, and superfantastic, and terrific He is. Because if you’re feeling bad about yourself, it’s not because you don’t have a high enough self esteem. It’s because you don’t have a high enough Christ esteem.
We’re not worthy. He is. Let’s get over ourselves and give Him the glory, and honor, and attention, and focus, and praise He so richly deserves.
….
— Michelle Lesley, Michelle Lesley: Give me church ladies, or I die, You’re Not Awesome…and You Know it, September 19,2017
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What a silly twat.
Jesus that was hard to read. 🙁
Somehow reading drivel like this makes christians happier people snark
Wow
(A 2nd wow because apparently three letter posts aren’t allowed)
If you look for the bad in a man, you’re sure to find it.
Wow! No wonder so many Christians are so unhappy. Being told that Jesus loves you when you’re good, but you’re not good enough and never will be, has to be soul-devouring if you take it to heart.
Actually, I am awesome. And I know it.
Lovely religion.
You hear this often enough, you start believing it.
Yes, “hard to read” is just the beginning.
The saddest thing in Christian fundamentalism and conservative evangelicalism is that any person within the system, no matter how stupid, uneducated, or uninformed they are, can write a religious book and have numerous Christian bookstores to sell it. Worst of all, the customers come in and buy these books in droves, perfectly willing to believe that every word written in them is somehow a personal message directly from God to them. Maybe I should get into this racket, sell a lot of books, make some dough, and get on the Christian speaker list for even more dough.
“Brother Jones. I would just like to say that Jesus laid it on my heart (why not his liver?) last night to invite Dr. Beverly B. Beverly to come to our church and speak. We hope to raise a “love offering” of $1,000 to show our appreciation to Dr. Beverly (Note: Dr. Beverly has a $700 speaking engagement fee for a one-hour presentation plus $300 for a budget round trip airplane ticket.) I just wish they would be upfront and honest about this stuff.”
You are so right about being upfront and honest. Instead, everything is obfuscated or hidden by theological/Biblical verbiage.
Do you suppose this is how she raised her own little bundles of sin? Calling them dirty, stinking, rotten, rebellious sinners? Accusing them of acting out of selfishness and lying? Teaching them that they sin against a holy and righteous God in a thousand ways every day in thought, word, and deed? Wow! And I thought MY mother was bad!
If any of you get the time research “narcissistic abuse”. One reason for my collapsing faith, being an adult child of narcissists and going and researching and learning how gaslighting and other techniques work. I got scared when I realized many biblical techniques were the same as narcissistic abusers. Being called a “stinkin worm” was one of them. Hell itself seemed to be the invention of a psychopath. But the more I have thought about the whole “sin” thing and how people are told they are “nothing” in Christianity over and over, I am disturbed. Sure I understand avoiding good and evil, and following one’s conscience, but why the focus on destruction of self esteem? It’s all about control.
Once I asked a friend, “Does God want bowing sycophants and crawling worms, or does He want “friends?” It was an interesting question. The God who wants to squash human beings into worms, is frightening. If God thinks human beings are so shitty why does he makes so many of them? I can’t worship the “god” of fundamentalism or evangelical “Christianity” anymore, he has become a monster to me.