Live Your Truth and Other Lies, by Alisa Childers
15/60 | Started 03.21.23 • Finished 03.30.23 | 4 stars
Power-punching book that turned into a short and easy read. Just like the subtitle says, Childers goes hard after exposing the popular deceptions that make us anxious, exhausted, and self-obsessed, and doesn't mince words in the process. I feel like the end of the book needed a "did I stutter?" to close it out.
I think that ditching the jargon and clinging to the timeless truths of the Bible is the most freeing and stabilizing thing we can do. It will ease anxiety, quell depression, and calm a restless heart. Recognizing who we are in Christ is the ultimate self-care because the Word of God doesn’t reinvent itself along with a constantly changing culture.
After a brief overview of truth in general and a plea to define the terms, Childers takes ten common statements to women from today's culture and refutes each from solidly biblical perspective.
Live your truth
You are enough
You should put yourself first
Authenticity is everything
You only have one life
God just wants you to be happy
You shouldn't judge
You are the boss of you
It's all about love
Girl power is real power
I can certainly say that I have seen most (all?) of these touted by self-proclaimed Christians at one time or another, mostly through shared media or book recommendations, but also straight from the mouth. Please don't hear me saying you can't have said these and be a Christian. What I am saying is that if you believe any of these statements to be true, you need to take a serious look at what the Bible says about it/them.
The cross is the answer to every lie that tells me I can find everything I need inside myself.... If you want to be enough for yourself, you cannot have the cross. It is the irritant that aggravates our sense of self-sufficiency, and it is the remedy that cures the defect that self-sufficiency creates.
If you've found yourself drawn to these statements, or any of their kind, I'd encourage you to take a step back, examine your own heart, and maybe even pick up a copy of this book. Childers does a solid job of refuting each statement in a clear and concise manner, using narrative and scriptural study to prove her points. Most importantly, she directs us to Christ for the satisfaction we as women often hope we'll find in these statements.
I docked a star due to the amount of story-telling (sometimes too much) and the use of sarcasm and parenthetical commentary (which I mostly enjoyed but could see being off-putting for many). Highly recommend - have even been thinking of it as a great gift for high school graduates.
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