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5 Lies Every Twentysomething Needs to Stop Believing

Paul Angone’s article “5 Lies Every Twentysomething Needs to Stop Believing” at Relevant Magazine examines common pitfalls in the mindset of today’s young adults. We are becoming disillusioned too quickly, he insists, and we need to “hose these lies off [our windshields] right now or spend our twenties stuck on the side of the road.” First, he writes, we must understand we are not alone in our struggles.

“We all need help. We all need support. We all need nudges, prompts, advice and encouragement…No one has it all figured out. The twentysomethings who think they do are in for the biggest shock of all.”

Angone continues his list by reminding twentysomethings that we can’t expect instant success in our endeavors, our lives are not necessarily supposed to look like the lives of others, we have what it takes, and, “the only failure of our twenties is if we fail and then call ourselves failures.” Ending on this note, Angone strongly reinforces the idea that thinking of ourselves as failures entirely misses the whole point of trying and failing (which is to keep going!).

“Our twenties are going to be riddled with failure. Anyone that tells you otherwise is a liar. But you don't have to define yourself by your failures.

Failure is not a period, it’s a comma. And only if you stop trying will you really fail… There’s only one way to be successful in our twenties—fail, tweak, then try again.”

Many Crosswalk authors have written about the struggles of living in in-between places and feeling like we have nothing to offer the world because things haven’t worked out quite the way we expected them to. Whether we’re twentysomethings or our children are twentysomethings, God wants us to grasp truth and follow his truth in our lives.

Stuck in a job you hate, or out of work and feeling like a failure? Jon Acuff tells us that any time of life is the right time to pursue your dreams, and Kay Marie and Kevin Brennfleck offer 13 Strategies for Successful Job Hunting.

Are you single and wondering how to pursue love? Mandy Hale insists that, when the opportunity of loves comes, it’s worth the risk – while Emily Maynard provides the refreshing reminder that there is nothing incomplete about being single.

Perhaps most importantly, Cliff Young asks the question, Who Are You Listening To? Are we listening to the world, or the lies of Satan, and believing harmful things about ourselves or our lives? Or are we listening to the Holy Spirit within us to direct our steps and mold our worldview?

“With access to so much information, advice, suggestions, self-help websites, etcetera, the most godly thing we can do is filter what society tells us to do, friends and well-meaning family espouse we should do, Christian website writers suggest and even at times what Jesus would do Himself, and focus on what He wants YOU to do in that exact situation and for your life.

Listen for His voice above the clamor of everything and everyone else and follow the path He set explicitly FOR YOU.”

What about you? What lies might you be believing about your life?

Debbie Holloway is the Family Life Editor for Crosswalk.com

Publication date: September 4, 2013