Idol Lies for Tweens Study Chapter One

First I have to say to every woman who visits here, Idol Lies is a great book to study and work through. It is life changing and I highly recommend it! We are doing this study together in my church. We have chosen to split the tween girls and put them in their own group because of the sensitivity of some of this material. These may help you if you decide to do the same thing. Group time is about 30 minutes for us.

For you Concord moms here is what I will be using during discussion time with your daughters.
Chapter One:
1-In the video you saw that cliff and the dark waters below. What did you think about that?
Our hearts can be just like those dark waters. It is hard to know what is under the surface.
Questions can help us identify what is in our hearts.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
    and desperately wicked.
    Who really knows how bad it is?" Jeremiah 17:9


"Though good advice lies deep within the heart,
    a person with understanding will draw it out." Proverbs 20:5
Here are some ways to discover some of these idol or things we run to instead of running to God.

1-Have you ever been angry or upset and thought if I just eat some candy it will make me feel better?
Or if I have a scoop of ice cream it will make things alright?

If yes this is one of the ways you run to something other than God for comfort.
God is the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3). We were meant to run to Him for this comfort instead of anything else.

2-Have you ever said something mean to make yourself feel better? Or have you ever said something bad about someone else to make yourself look better than them? Have you ever thought I must be the best at this or that?

If yes this is one of the ways you are running to an idol other than God. God gives us our identity so beyond that it does not matter what anyone else thinks (1 Cor. 4:3-4). And in Him we are His children which makes us royalty. That then makes you princesses so you should walk confidently before Him not in arrogance but in confidence that you belong to the most high King. Your identity is in this if you are in Christ. (shared the gospel here. Christ came, died, and rose again for our sin. That is only way we can be identified with Him in this way.)

3-Have you ever wanted something that someone else had? If they would not give it to you have you ever made something else look better so they would leave the thing you wanted? I see this happen with brothers and sisters often and this is called manipulation. When we do this we are not being content with what we have (Philippians 4:11). We are not trusting God to give us all we need or want. 

God is the Ruler of the entire universe. He is the one who owns all things. Cry out to Him and he will help your heart be content. 

Now we have identified root idols, how do we run to God instead of running to these false idols? These false things we run too are not going to help us in the long run. God will help us with them.

We need to learn to know when one of these temptations are rising up and then cry out to God for His help or even ask your mom or dad to help you work through this. If you start to feel anxious, annoyed, or frustrated you are to stop and think about what is really going on. Think about where it is you are not trusting God and cry out to Him to help in this area. 

Homework assigned for the week was to pay attention to these frustrations, annoyances, anxiousness and report back to class what happened.