The Truth

My husband recently introduced me to a song by Megan Wood called “The Truth,” and wow—it hit me right in the middle of my insecurities. The lyrics talk about how many times we can hear the lies of the enemy before we start to believe them, and the desperate need to come back to the truth of who God says we are. That truth? That we are His children, made in His image, fully loved, and never not enough.

Welcome my darlings. I am so glad you’re here. If you’ve been following me, I generally do all blogs and podcasts under Something Better, My Darling which I started during a very rough patch in my life. I was a single mom, dating, trying to do my best. Now, I am remarried, with a very supportive husband and my challenges feel different. This led me to start thinking about who I talk to in my podcasts. I still have plenty of messages for single moms and many times my messages overlap. However, I wanted to make sure that all the women out there felt like they could listen to my podcasts, read my blogs, and that I had resources for them. Which is why I now have Here is The 114! 114 is one of my signs and is my number. So, I played off of the 411 idea and switched to my number. Plus, I used to be in broadcast journalism, so this is my way of bringing you the news! Okay, let’s dive in now, to The 114 for today!

If this is your first time here, welcome! I’m Mandi, and I believe in keeping it real—raw, honest, and unpolished. Because pretending doesn’t help any of us grow closer to God or closer to the version of ourselves He designed us to be. So today, I’m sharing how this song stirred up memories, doubts, and lessons I’m still learning about confidence, alignment, comparison, and being enough. Let’s dig in.

My husband turned me onto a song by Megan Wood called “The Truth.” Here is a snippet of the first part of the song.

“How many times can you hear the same lie before you start to believe it? The enemy keeps whipserin’; to me. I swear these days it's all that I hearin.’ I used to know who I was. Now I look in the mirror, and I’m not so sure. Lord, I don’t wanna listen to the lies anymore. The truth is I am my Father’s child, I make Him proud and I make Him smile. I was made in the image of a perfect Kin. He looks at me and wouldn’t change a thing. The Truth is I am truly loved by a God who’s good when I’m not good enough. I don’t belong to the lies, I belong to You. And that’s the truth.” - Megan Wood, The Truth (partial lyrics)

Oh my goodness does this one hit hard. So hard. So let’s talk about this song. Why does it cut deep for me? And by cut I mean just strike me right where my insecurities are the deepest. I am not sure where to start with this. 

Growing Up Big Boned

The beginning it is! I will talk about my childhood often, because I loved it! I understand. I am very fortunate to have been raised the way I was with a loving family, cousins to play with, a small community watching every move we made (even though I did not appreciate it at the time!). However, even as much as I loved my childhood. I had a few struggles. The main one that my husband will attest sticks with me today, is my weight. I was not a dainty girl. I am still not a dainty girl. I had a family member tell me I was just “big boned” and I had a mean highschooler bark at me during a track meet. All of these silly less than 30 second interactions that I still remember. Silly! Pausing one second to insert my love of Emotion Code! More to come on that later, but it is amazing! Needless to say, I have looked in the mirror many times and NOT seen what God sees, but have seen what I want to see. How amazing would it be to actually be able to see yourself the way God does? I am pretty sure we would all walk around much more confidence! Sort of like the movie “I Feel Pretty.” If you have not seen it, it is pretty striking how different we might act with a little bit of confidence. 

I am Not Enough

This goes along with the big boned one for me, which is much like lack of confidence, because it all feeds each other. When the scale says a number I don’t like, I get grumpy and feel like I am not enough, or well, too much actually. Ha! But it is more than that too. In almost every part of my life this will creep in if I let it. Feeling like I am not doing enough as a mom, as a wife, as a professional, and the list goes out. But I know this isn’t the truth. I know that God gave me everything I need to be enough as a mom, wife, employee, friend, sister, and on and on and on. If I can remember this, lean into this and not listen to the negative thoughts rolling around in my head, it would go a lot smoother. Being able to practice the pause, telling the negative thoughts to go away, and letting God’s truth set it, is a valuable skill to learn. I will not say this is easy to do, and there are days I just plain forget and let the negative thoughts take over. The goal is to have more good days than bad days.

Alignment

This is absolutely one of the hardest things for me. And I will not say I have it figured out because this is probably where I doubt knowing the truth the most. I know what lights me up, I know what makes my spirit happy, but sometimes my doubt of being able to make that a way of life creeps in, so I play it safe. I stay. I do what is best for my family. Please do not take this as I am not happy or thankful. I am very thankful for my current situation and I do enjoy what I do. I have a great team, a great company, and we do meaningful work. But is it what I am designed to do? I don’t know. And here comes the doubts. Maybe this is just a character flaw of mine, but it is something I struggle with. And since I started writing this, I have thought so, so much about this and the idea of being content vs. growth and can they co-exist? Or a better question - how do they co-exist?

Behind

Social media is the WORST for this. I know this, yet I let it get to me. I see posts of people my age and I think, “why am I so behind?” “why did I not do this differently” And so many more thoughts about why I am not where everyone else is. Then I remember, because they aren’t me! Their path is not my path! God has a single story for everyone. Yes, of course stories may intertwine or cross paths, but they are still individual stories. Nope, I am not behind at all. I am actually right where I am supposed to be in the story God has written for me. He just knows the end, I don’t. But I wish I knew the end!

Doing All the Things with Minimal Results

As I work on my podcasts, blogs, resources, new Instagram pages, YouTube, I am trying to follow what everyone says to do to be successful, but it does not seem to be working. Then I get frustrated. And then my mind spirals and the doubt sets in. Maybe I am not doing what I is in alignment with God’s will for me? Maybe I am supposed to be doing something else? Or maybe I am not supposed to do anything at all! But I know that I want to help girls and women. I want them to not only feel, but be unstoppable. In their relationships, in their careers, in their health. All of it! 

I Am Not Cutting is as a Mom

My oh my is being a parent difficult. I thought the baby stages of no sleep and midnight feedings were hard. I’d take those back in a heartbeat! They could not talk back to me, they could not lie to me, they just did what they felt. I know, each stage has its own rewards and challenges, but as my kids get older and reach ‘leaving the nest,’ I am just anxious. Do they know enough to be on their own? Did I spend enough time with them? Do they love Jesus enough to trust him? What else do I need to teach them? Will they make good decisions? Will they be good, productive humans? I find myself in this constant state of wanting to be home more to soak up these last few years with them, but then sad or disappointed in myself when I can’t make that happen. And then I can really get myself in a cycle of each one of these items I’ve been talking about.

Great, thank you Mandi for having a pity party! I have those some days! But now what? What should I do? Well, I am very fortunate to currently be on a business trip, alone! And traveling on a Sunday means I have time to write, relax, and think. And most importantly, listen. Or, try to listen. I will be the first to admit that discerning my inner voice and wants from what God wants me to do, is very difficult. I seriously need him to speak audibly. This is why I ask for signs. Today, I did not ask for any signs, yet saw two sets of 1-1-4 and a painting on a parking garage of a little girl and butterflies. Okay. Okay. I am right where I am supposed to be! I am listening! So I sat by the pool. Prayed. Read. And now I am writing. Sitting in my airbnb, doing laundry, and in my PJs ready for bed as soon as possible. :-) Back to ‘what to do now.’ When I was at the pool I was reading a book about emotional intelligence (EI). I generally score high when I test for this, but I wanted to know more so I bought a book that summarizes 10 Harvard Business Reviews about EI.One of the prompts in a study reminded me of something I used to ask myself daily, and that is ‘who do you want to be?’ While I am busy over here trying to make sure I heard what God wanted me to be, I also need to remember that I have a choice in how I show up every day, in every situation. Nope, this is not always easy, and some days are much easier than others. But we have a choice. Here are your steps! (I love a good list! And definition)

1. Write down your top 5-10 situations or scenarios you have in a day (morning with your children, time alone, meetings with your team at work, etc.)

2. Be very honest with yourself and write down how you are currently showing up in those situations.

3. Now write down how you’d like to show up in those situations. 

4. And lastly, what do you need to do differently to bridge the gap from #2 to #3?

5. You do not need to do all situations at once. Prioritize what situations are most important to you and work your way through them.

As you work on your lists, remember this part of the song - The truth is I am my Father’s child - how are you showing up the way you want, and as Your Father’s child. You may need to go back to your list and adjust. 

As I wrap up today’s episode, I just want to remind you—and myself—that the truth always outweighs the lies. We are our Father’s children. We make Him smile. We belong to Him, not to our doubts or insecurities.

If today’s message resonated with you, take a moment to pause this week and ask yourself: Who do I want to be? Not through the lens of social media, comparison, or the scale—but through the truth of God’s Word.

Thank you for spending this time with me. If you found encouragement here, share this blog with a friend who might need the reminder too. You can also find me on Instagram at the114_StrongFaithWomen or Pintrest at The 114 | Christian Mom, Wife, Recovering Nice Girl | Resources And remember: you don’t have to have it all figured out. Just keep showing up as your Father’s child—that’s the truth.