My counselor looked at me with a tilt of her sassy head and a half-smile and and said, “But girl, remember who you battle! You were riding high and Satan couldn’t have that. Satan hates the family, and he’s doing everything he can to destroy yours. He was gonna hit you hard and he sure did!”
But isn’t that the point, really? Because you can brand a website, but you can’t brand your life. You can create a style sheet for your blog, but you can’t create a style sheet for your kids. They are gonna be who they are and do what they are going to do, regardless of the perfect plans you have for them. Because God knows what He’s doing way more than we do. And He’s making something beautiful out of our messy life. Beautiful…messy…motherhood…marriage…faith…life. It’s still messy. It’s still beautiful. Beautiful…in His time. That’s what it’s always been. That’s what it will always be.
Over the last few posts in my series, Grace: How a Recovering Legalist Moves Forward in Faith, I feel that I’ve done the best I can do to present theologically-sound, Scripturally-based truth about pursuing a relationship with God. My posts have been purposed and thought-out over months of planning, mulling, and meditating. What I have presented … [Read more…]
At our March 2017 care group meeting, our discussion turned toward the topic of spiritual disciplines. By definitions, “spiritual disciplines” are generally those things that should be habitual to the Christian walk: reading the Bible, prayer, gathering with God’s people. I was able to honestly share my struggles about duty versus desire in regard to … [Read more…]
It’s been over two years since I first talked about Bible journaling here on the blog. I haven’t spent nearly as much time on this as I would like, but I wanted to give a small update, share some things I’ve colored and created, and share some great resources I have found. Bible journaling is … [Read more…]
I received the following message from a former acquaintance recently: What advice would you give someone preparing to step out of a IFB, Legalistic Church? I sent this person a bit of advice over messenger, but as I thought about it a bit more, I felt like it would be apropos to include a post of … [Read more…]
{Warning, this post contains brief but graphic depiction of sexual abuse. Proceed with caution.} As a semi-avid follower of the sport of gymnastics for the last few years, it has been impossible for me to avoid being touched by the heartache of the Larry Nassar case. For those of you who know nothing of which … [Read more…]
In the last segment of this series, I spoke about the practical struggle of everyday Christian living when you are a recovering legalist. Mainly, doing the “right thing” when you don’t want to, navigating spiritual disciplines, and how to know if you are living in your own strength or God’s power. I concluded my last post … [Read more…]
The practical struggle of everyday Christian living when you are a recovering legalist When I spent two and a half months in 2013 fleshing out the theology of grace while telling my personal story, I came to a lot of good conclusions that I believe to be Biblical. Let me summarize them in a nutshell: … [Read more…]
I was cleaning my bedroom last week when this quote popped into my head. I had cleaned off my night stand, including my new(ish) journaling Bible that had been resting there. While I have been using it (more on this to come), it’s not falling apart by any means. It’s condition might even be called … [Read more…]