when lies become believable

Some days I let the lies become the truth.

What you’re doing doesn't matter.
You aren’t wanted here.
You aren’t good at ____ or _____.
You’re a failure.

They don’t really like you.
People are only pitying you.

Lies suffocate as they cripple, shutting the doors to freedom, locking ourselves away in a room of disdain and disqualification.
The truth is swallowed by the darkest of fears, leaving us to forget certainty.
And sometimes, it’s the things we know to be true that are the easiest to forget.
. . .
I’ve never seen her without a smile on her face or an adventure written in her planner. She is a community builder, a force for good, and someone my wife + I cannot wait for our children and dog to meet.

Holding back tears, she told me what someone had called her.

Clingy.
Needy.
Controlling.
Suffocating.

Bold lies.
Believable lies.
Intoxicating lies.
Lies dressed up as the truth.

I never knew this to be true and hadn’t heard anyone else say these things about her.

These accusations grabbed hold of her mind, leading her to a dangerous place of what if’s and failure and questioning.
Is this really true? Is this really who I am?

One of the most beautiful things about friendship is that we get a to write a letter of truth in reply to a message of myth.

Our voices rise in unison as they shine bright a light of truth on the fiction, pulling certainty out of the darkness for all to see.

Our words fight together against overpowering lies to help lead another to see the beautiful truth.

We need each other to call out the lies and point each other to the truth; to speak honest words in the face of weary deception so we might move forward.

Mixed within the harrowing lies festers the burden of comparison.  
. . .
Comparison seeks to steal the best of us and show us the possible worst; nudging us with a loud whisper of you aren’t that, but you should be.
Or you are that and you shouldn’t be.

Comparison rots growth and leads us further from the truth.

Just like the lies we have come to believe.
But those lies aren’t true.
The lie we have come to believe is not true.

You are not ugly.
You are not a mistake.
You are not a waste. 
You are not your mistakes.
You are not stupid.
You are not unwanted.
You are not invisible.
You are not a failure.
You are not a burden.

Meet the lie with the truth.
Kill comparison and speak the truth.
Speak up for those who are being weighed down by deceit.