Devotions for Teachers: Girl, Read Your Bible

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12 28-31

Do any of y’all feel like there has been a huge surge of self-help books geared towards women lately? Like, everywhere we turn there’s a new one being written. And please LISTEN to me when I tell you that I am one of the greatest consumers of these. I have read books by Laura Vanderkam, Gretchen Rubin, Christy Wright, and of course Rachel Hollis, all in the past year. And each of these books were meant to teach me something about being more successful, and in turn…happier.

I don’t inherently think there is anything wrong with reading advice passed down from women (or anyone, really) who have experience with or have studied something closely. There’s a lot to learn from each other, and I think it’s important that we can embrace the wisdom that women can give each other! But, there’s a distinct difference between taking advice into consideration from another person, and relying on them to teach us how to be happy. Because let’s be real: our favorite self-help, business boss babes are just human. Just like you and me.

My pastor said today that when you know that you’re chosen, you don’t need anything from anyone else. Rather than self-help, maybe we should try a dose a self-love? Take the time this week to dwell on the fact that you are CHOSEN to be here doing what you’re doing. Friend, you have incredible gifts that you are being called to use. You don’t need any social media-celebrity to remind you of that. God is waiting to remind you each day when you wake up.

God is the only one who holds enough gravity and power to keep the other pieces of your life in place. When you put Him right in the center, and set aside that time to build a relationship with Him each day, He will create space for you to love yourself and feel happier than you can when you place other things in the center of your heart. If your career is there, your spouse, your friends…things will start to waver, and you will not feel happy. You will not feel confident in yourself and the choices you make.

Let’s challenge ourselves this week to create that space to hear the encouragement Jesus wants to give us each day. Let’s pray. Read our bibles. Take a pause to give thanks. The road to true happiness is so much simpler than all of the self-help books or Instagram stories would lead you to believe. Put Christ at the center, and the rest will fall into place.

Have a great week of teaching, friends. We’ve got this!

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