Jennifer Rothschild - Me, Myself, and Lies for Young Women: What to Say When You Talk to Yourself

Invisible for Young Women

Jennifer Rothschild knows how easy it is to feel overlooked and invisible. Referring to the Bibles most unusual love story, found in the book of Hosea, Jennifer helps you see that God loves you and cares for you in whatever situation you find yourself in. You will discover that

If you wander off, God will find you.

If you are afraid, He will calm you.

And even if you give up on Him, He will never give up on you.

No matter where you are, our faithful God sees you and loves you unconditionally. As you read the story of Hosea and Gomer, youll sense God reaching out to you and saying, You are mine, and that makes you lovely. You matter to Me; you will never be invisible to Me.

M y friend,

Ive written a lot about the Bible and Jesus in this book. You may be used to that kind of writing, but if youre not, I want you to experience the relationship that has changed my life.

When I transferred my trust from myself to Christ, thats when I truly saw myself as the person God created me to be. Thats when I was able to separate truth from lies. Thats also when I finally understood how to talk to myself the way God would talk to me.

God loves you. He created you to know Him and to love Him. But we human beings sin, and our sin separates us from our holy and sinless God. He is perfect, and were not! So on our own we cant know God intimately or go to heaven to be with Him when we die.

Like God Himself, heaven is also perfect, so only perfection can dwell there. God knew we wouldnt be perfect like Him, yet He loves us and wants us to know Him and be with Him. So if God is perfect and we are imperfect, what can we do about that gap?

Try hard to be good? But how good is good enough?

Volunteer? How do we know if weve volunteered enough?

Go to church? Okay, but how often?

Keep the Ten Commandments? Makes sense, but what happens if I break one?

Heres the truth. Regardless of how good you are, you arent perfect enough for heaven. Not one of us is. Regardless of how much you volunteer or how often you go to church, you cant earn your way into heaven. There is an answer, though. Theres a way to God, a remedy for your sin, and a path to heaven: Trust Jesus Christ.

God made a way for you and me to go to heaven. He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. When we believe thatwhen we trust that Jesus is who He said He is and that His death on the cross is enough to pay the consequences of our lifelong sinthen we can live this life in relationship with God and live for eternity in heaven with Him.

So I encourage you to ask God to forgive you for your sins and then ask Jesus to be your Savior. He will say yes! And you will be aware of His presence in your life as He comes into your life and, among other transforming tasks, helps you sort through your thought closet, tossing the things that dont look good on you and replacing them with the things that are fun, flattering, and fashionable. Replacing less than attractive and unhelpful things with His truth. His grace. His love. His words of encouragement, comfort, and inspiration.

My prayer is that youll please consider these things. If I am wrong in believing what I am encouraging you to believe, I lose nothing in the long run, for my relationship with Jesus is enabling me to live with purpose and to experience deep satisfaction. And if I am right about my choice to receive Gods forgiveness for my sins and to live in relationship with Jesus, I have gained everything, and I want the same for you.

If you want to enter into a relationship with Jesus, you can ask Him to be your Savior and Lord by praying a prayer like this:

Lord Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God. Thank You for loving me and dying on the cross for my sins. Please forgive me for those sinsand please give me the gift of eternal life. I ask You to be at the center of my life, my heart, and my thought closet. I welcome You to be my Lord and Savior. Your presence in my life will truly give me confidence, purpose, and love to share. So please help me live my life for You and for others.

If you prayed that prayer, please let me know at

www.jenniferrothschild.com.

I cant wait to celebrate with you!

H aley pulled her favorite purple T-shirt over her head and slipped into a well-worn pair of jeans. But when she looked in the mirror, she noticed that the shirt had a toothpaste stain right in the front, and the jeans Well, most girls werent wearing that style anymorebut they were so comfortable!

She was going to be late for school if she didnt change quickly, but Haley couldnt find anything in her closet she wanted to wear. The last time shed worn a dress, a few kids had made fun of hereven though it was a simple T-shirt dressand told her she looked too dressed up. Her other shirts seemed too bright and colorful. Neutrals were the thing now at her school. And she couldnt find another clean pair of jeans.

All my stuff is wrong , Haley thought.

And nothing looks good on me anyway.

How could it? Im just not as pretty as the other girls.

Come to think of it, Im not as smart either.

Or as talented. Or as popular.

I ll never measure up!

Have you ever had a getting-ready-for-school morning like Haleys? Have you ever stood in front of a mirror and told yourself all the specific ways you dont measure up? And then maybe you picked up your phone and started scrolling through Instagram or Tumblr and started comparing yourselfyour unfiltered, no-makeup, dirty T-shirt selfto the seemingly perfect images captured on camera (which, by the way, are filtered and fully edited pictures of women who are completely made up). Those pictures can make us crazy with the standards they set for us.

And that can happen even when youre just talking to the self you see in the mirror. This craziness gets even worse when you throw in the things other people are saying about youor the things you think they might be saying! Believe me, sometimesa lot of the timewe misread a situation. We see someone whispering to someone else, and when they glance our way we think, Its obvious theyre talking about me. Or we read something online and guess, This is totally referring to me.

Guess what? More untruths.

Yep. More lies.

More stuff we need to clean out of our thought closets.

Because you know what the truth really is? You do measure up. You are talented. And pretty. And smart. And even if youre not popular, youre still nice. And kind. And so many other goodand truethings!

Struggle

When I was a little girl, I felt like no matter what I did or how hard I tried, it just wasnt good enough. I was a complete perfectionistand I was painfully self-aware. I was always wondering what people were thinking or saying about me. So many times, all of my Im-not-good-enough thoughts washed over me like a waterfall. That can make life really hard for someone who wants to please others and do everything right and make everyone happy.

When I became a teenager, I changed a lotand thats totally normal. The words I was regularly telling myself also changed. They got worse!

I actually started calling myself names when I didnt measure up or when I made mistakes or whenin my mindI said or did or even wore the wrong thing.

When I was 15you know, the year before I was supposed to get my drivers licenseI became legally blind due to a disease called retinitis pigmentosa. Even though I received that difficult news with grace and resolve (God alone made that possible!), this new development in my life opened the door for even more negative thoughts and confidence-destroying self-talk.