What Do Our Daughters Believe?

What do our daughters believe?

I can tell you what this daughter believes, and yes, the struggle is real.

Each morning, my iPhone sounds a gentle alarm song to softly nudge me into starting the day.  And that is when the battle begins. The battle to claim truth about my identity in Christ requires daily preparation —  heart, mind, body, and soul.

Living requires me to first, recognize who my enemy is — a manipulative, powerful spirit who lurks in dismal corners, disguised. He is the greatest Trickster, lover of darkness, eager to lead me into passivity.

After nailing him down, he dares me to lock eyes with him. He threatens to dilute the strength of who I AM.

Scrolling my Facebook stream, clicking on any one of numerous newsworthy tabs from my MSN homepage, or even treading my way through a purchase via online shopping, I perceive the Enemy’s nearness. He stirs insecurity in my heart and tempts me to believe that it’s time to overhaul.   And better yet, he invites me to choose the kind of overhaul I want to pursue for a younger looking, more attractive me.

There is the ever so affordable Beachbody workout regimen that requires relatively little of my time and discipline.  Or, I might choose a polyester nude-colored slimming device that promises to suck in my backsliding backside and my tired,  bulging skin while simultaneously hoisting up my top shelf so that it looks perky and Elizabethan in my white V-neck tee.  Skincare lines abound, pledging to brighten the darkening eyelid lines that have emerged from years of less than ideal sleep that were just part of mommying like a rockstar.

When I consider these constant  media postings and truth sabotaging messages, it leads me to consider an ancient lie.  The lie that the Serpent told Eve to believe in the garden is the same lie he lures me into believing today. Acknowledging the lie is the hardest next step of the battle. Because it isn’t pretty.

Satan claims to see me by claiming he wants to fix me.

He wants this generation and the next and all those hereafter to believe that there are ways to fix our discontented hearts without God intervening.

But we must believe, clinging to the Word as our double-edged sword, that it is worth every breath of our existence to fight against the quick fixes The Enemy makes available. By holding fast to God’s word, we choose to believe truth over the lie that assaults our bodies and crushes our spirits.

As a generation of Christ-followers, we must choose to pass down truths about beauty and love and wholeness and purity to our future daughters and granddaughters and to women everywhere, until He calls us home. And the truth is this.

HE longs to empower us.

HE passionately pursues us.

HE sees us– beautifully and wonderfully made.

We are fearlessly loved by our Father.

And last, but not least.

The more battle-tested and worn, the better.