5 Lies The World Tells To “Empower” You As A Mother

“I am the best; I can do it. God is always with me. I am a winner. Today is my day.” A photo with these phrases popped up on my Instagram feed recently, and immediately I felt anger stir within me.

When faced with what I believe to be a distortion of the truth, I react.  

In my blog, I write often about my identity, worth, and uniqueness, but I want to be clear on this: real security is actually true humility. It’s when I’m secure in who I am in God, that I see it’s all about Him.

False concepts replaced with truth

One by one I’m going to dismantle every false concept in the sentences above. All except “God is always with me,” which I believe is true for children of God.

However, I will add a sentence that I have seen all over social media and that I could also easily imagine being a part of the sentence above: “I’m worthy of grace”.

So here goes:

Lie 1 – I’m the best

Firstly, “I am the best” is untrue, because all people fall short of the glory of God. Knowing my worth is not believing I’m the best. It’s believing God is! 

Lie 2 – I can do it!

Secondly, concerning “I can do it”, I assume this is in reference to the verse “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” which some people interpret to mean that they can do whatever they want because God will give them strength.

Yet the context of the passage is actually Paul showing his contentment in all circumstances. The apostle was often imprisoned, but at all times, he learned to be content.

He learnt that in Christ he would have the strength to do God’s will – not that Paul could do whatever he wanted, and God would bless and strengthen him in that.

So, I believe God does give His followers strength in the situations that He ordains for their lives, but He doesn’t bless their endeavours when they are outside His will.

Lie 3 – I’m a winner

Thirdly, with the sentence “I am a winner”, there is some truth to this. After all, in Christ we do have victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:56–57), the world (1 John 5:4) and evil (1 John 4:4).  The problem with saying simply “I’m a winner” or inserting it into the phrase above, is that it conveys the idea that children of God can do whatever they like and always be victorious and blessed.

Lie 4 – Today is my day

The phrase “today is my day” is simply false. This is the day the Lord has made (Psalm 118:24). Every single day belongs to the Lord, not to me.

Lie 5 – I’m worthy of grace

This is a contradiction in terms. Grace means the unmerited favour of God, i.e. we don’t deserve it, but He blesses us anyway. Christ died for us while we were still sinners! No, we don’t deserve God’s mercy. We are not worthy of grace. But God is so good and holy and loving that He shows us mercy, despite our sin.

Real focus

I believe that at the root of many false interpretations of biblical passages is a wrong focus. A focus on the self instead of God. But true humility is the opposite.

As much as God has taught me about my worth, my talents and my identity, all this is ultimately to glorify God, because, without Him, I am nothing.

The reason I have value is that He created me in His image. The reason my identity is one of daughter, heir, and citizen of Heaven is that I am in Jesus. The reason I have talents is that they are gifts from my good Father.

Conclusion

At the beginning of my motherhood journey, it was about me: my feelings, my perceptions of other people’s opinions of me, how motherhood was affecting me.

Until slowly I came to understand the purpose of motherhood. Although me being a mother involved me, it wasn’t ultimately about me.

God hadn’t made me a mother so I could spend my days dwelling on my feelings and thoughts about motherhood. God hadn’t made me a mother so I could feel fulfilled or purposeful. And God hadn’t made me a mother so I would get praised every time I nailed motherhood (at least by the world’s standards).

He had made me a mother so I could glorify Him. He had made me a mother so that, for a window of time, I would be entrusted with little disciples who I was to point to God.

What other lies do you feel the world tells you to “empower you”? Please share below.

Also, if you found this article useful please consider sharing it with a friend or saving it on Pinterest, for others to see. 🙂