Overcome the Lie Blog Tour

Months ago, Ashley and I were talking and she asked me to participate in the blog tour for her project Overcome the Lie. I love everything about the message, the sweet girl behind the project, all the inspirational writers and artists who are behind it... OF COURSE, I jumped at the chance to promote Overcome the Lie. Proving that God is blessing the socks off this project, so many women agreed to participate, that Ashley pushed my post date to May 1.

Oh, the irony. While I should have been posting about Overcoming the Lies I believe about myself, I was actually knee-deep in believing all kinds of ridiculousness because our daughter may need to be held back a grade and of course it was all my fault.

I was buying into the lie that because my kid isn't a great reader people would think she wasn't smart, or that I didn't help her enough, or that I was a bad mom.

I knew it wasn't true, even as I was worrying about this nonsense I knew it was all a lie. But I was finding that I was struggling to not believe it.

I knew that our family was going to need all the prayer and encouragement we could get, so I wrote out a post simply sharing the problem and our specific prayer needs. I wrote and rewrote that post a million times (ok, three) out of fear.

What are people going to think? Is this a dumb request? No one is dying or sick or hungry or homeless or unemployed or depressed... What right do I have to even ask for this level of prayer?

(You know, cuz certain types of problems deserve higher levels of prayer. A first grader with reading issues is clearly going to be on the bottom of the list. All those other people, they really need the prayer warriors.)

I went to sleep and didn't post it because at 11 pm when you are tired and emotional it's really hard to overcome those ugly lies.

8 am is, thankfully, another story. I posted our prayer requests and rushed off to meet my friend Rosario, who blog post or not, is my biggest personal prayer warrior. That girl prays for us in a way that is truly life changing. I shared that we needed more prayer and she smiled and said, "I pray for you and your family everyday!"

By the time Lily came home from school there were dozens and dozens of emails, texts, facebook messages, even a couple tweets and instagram messages, for Lily. They came from several states, a couple different countries and made my geography loving son flip.

When I told Lily that she got a message from a missionary friend in Peru and another friend in Massachusetts, the kids excitement went through the roof. My son saying, "Lily got a message from a missionary in Peru* and someone in Massachusetts??" with the same level of awe and excitement as if I had told him she had gotten a message from his favorite superhero. Because to two kids in California, Peru and Massachusetts might as well be the moon.

Lily read a few of the messages, grinning from ear to ear and I held back tears, because God used your prayers and encouragement for my girl and our family to help me overcome the lies (and ensure that they never touch my girl) in ways I never could have imagined.


*ps read Dalaina's book, Yielded Captive. It's awesome! I stayed up all night reading it. Couldn't. Put. It. Down. Look, I even gave you a link, so go buy it!