In just SIX weeks from today I will give birth to my second book baby!! (Coincidentally the same day of May I gave birth to my second child!) And just as my subsequent pregnancies seemed to go much faster than the first one, so has the process leading up to this book launch. But what isn’t any different no matter what number child (or book) is the reality of needing help! And I do!
No laughing! Clearly pregnant women have much better style now, but I do like the Face Time orange!
Before you decide though how you can help (or if you will help) let me tell you why this book for teen girls should matter to you even if you don’t have a teenage girl. Because whether or not you have teenage kids, little kids, grown kids or no kids, what’s happening in the selfie world of teens is an effect of our culture and is also affecting our culture. Therefore, none of us are not being shaped by the selfie world in which we live.
But, the real problem is not this world, it’s that we are turning to the created thing instead of the Creator to give us what only God can. We are turning inward to self, thinking our appearance or our performance determines our worth. We buy into the lie that how pretty, skinny, smart, successful, popular, powerful, wealthy is what gives us value… but even that’s not enough, we need everyone else to notice. Without others’ affirmation, acceptance and love we crumble under the pressure of trying to measure up and thinking we aren’t enough.
What this looks like for teens (and adults) is seeking after Instagram “likes” and comments, starving and/or abusing our bodies, pretending to be okay but secretly falling apart, tearing others down, giving into peer pressure out of fear of others’ opinions, forgoing boundaries, turning friendships into competition and on and on. And apart from the intervening worth and work of a Savior we will continue down paths of destruction and emptiness.
But Jesus incarnate changes everything. Who he is for us is who we are. He is our true identity. There is a disconnect though in getting this and seeing how the story of the Bible is what helps us understand our condition (we are all in the same boat!) and brings us the hope and wholeness we long for.
In a very practical way and with narrative fictional, but realistic stories, Face Time speaks to the hearts of girls, But I’m telling you, I need to hear the same truths because the root problem is our hearts, which are all the same. So the only way any of us will ever lay aside the false ways we seek to find worth and rest secure in Christ is to see our condition for what it is and then look full in his wonderful face.
Face Time matters for our girls, and for the rest of us. I hope you want to read more and I hope you will help me spread the word because like I said I can’t do it alone. It takes a village. Preview a sample of the book here.
*******To read more about/sign up for the Book Launch Team please click the link here.*******
Face Time comes out May 29th. You can preorder it now: here.
