Every thought captive...

We've packed exactly three boxes.

Actually, the credit goes to my two youngest kids..."Pack a box" was added to their "to-do" list the other day.  I found a book in one of those boxes {yes, I actually looked through the box of books...not sure why I didn't look while still on the shelf, but nonetheless...}  I was looking for something new to read during my quiet reading time in the morning {Notice: Alex getting a job has been VERY good for me.  Both of our alarms go off at 6am and I actually get out of bed, make him some breakfast and pack his little lunch box.  Then I fight the strong urge to go back to bed and instead take a cup of coffee out to the porch to read...if you know me well..you know this is progress...}

Anyway, I pulled a book out called, "Every Thought Captive" by Jerusha Clark.  I have no idea where I got it, or when, but I've never cracked the spine open on it, so it sounded like a good choice.  It's a book for women, written by a woman who has struggled with self-worth, believing the lies of the world and understanding God's LOVE.   As we've been dealing with alot of issues among our girls in youth group in the area of self-worth and understanding how God sees us, this book has come at an opportune time.  {Not to mention there is a certain someone in my house in the full-blown middle school years who has messages of the lying kind being thrown at her daily}

I'm an underliner. 

As I read, I underline...{not to be confused with a highlighter-I prefer not to change the color of the page, just draw attention to what sticks out at me}  Here's today's underlined thought:

"The heart of life is this: to make the LORD and His immense LOVE for you constitutive of your personal worth.  Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.  God's love for you and His choice of you constitute your worth.  Accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life."

I confess that I had to stop and google the word "constitutive"...I just wasn't getting it in this sentence. 

Constitutive: Making a thing what it is.

I like that. 

Interestingly, as I'm reading this with many teenage girls in mind, I'm realizing that I constantly need to relearn this, too.  How often do I look in the mirror and not like what I see, or do I look at my life and think it doesn't measure up???  Too often.  If I'm completely honest with myself, I define so many things based on the way the world around me says I should. 

 So, then, I guess the world is constituting my self worth...not God.  Will I ever really get it?  You'd think by now I would.

The phrase "define yourself radically by one beloved by God" really stuck out at me, too.  I use the word "radical" often when I pray for my kids faith.  I remember talking with a mother who's kids have grown {and into some very fine Christian young people, I might add}...when I made mention of my appreciation for one particular son who has far surpassed his years of rebellion, her comment to me was this:  "my children are radical.  They were radical in their rebellion, and now they are radical in their faith."  I will never forget that. I want this for my own kids and for the students I work with.  {I'll pass on the radical rebellion, please...but it was the radical rebellion that brought them to radical faith....}   

I'm only on page 33 in this book, and much of it is underlined- to be remembered and passed on.  The subtitle reads, "battling the toxic beliefs that separate us from the life we crave..."  

I guess I'm setting myself up for a good toxic cleansing. 

{Not to be mistaken for THIS kind of toxic cleansing}

PLUS

EQUALS

the end