Chapter 1: An Invitation to Imperfect Progress

Chapter 1: An Invitation to Imperfect Progress

My online assignment for today is to read chapter 1, use a highlighter to highlight parts I want to remember, and make notes of our memory verse. Were also asked to participate in the online discussion about a key quote or point I can take away from this chapter. Get ready, Im a quote junkie. I can't stick to just one!!  

Im obsessed with the message version of today's verse! I highlighted the parts that yelled at me!

Hebrews 12:1

 ^1-3 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

"Emotions aren't bad."

I can't even make it through the first sentence of the chapter without quoting. Love this. As women, aren't we sometimes taught that emotions are negative? We cry too much, we took something too personal, or we read into something that wasn't there. Emotions aren't bad yall! Its how we handle them. 

"I will destroy the relationships I value most and wave into my life permanent threats of short-temperdness, shame, fear, and frustration. Is that what I really want?"

As Lysa writes about her towel tirade, she writes about how she's processing through her lack of self-control in the situation and her emotion explosion. If we refuse to get a handle on our emotions, this quote will ring true through every relationship in our daily interactions. Is this who we want to be known as? I know I don't, but according to the way I chose to handle different situations with my current heart condition Im not so sure I could say Im not doing this. 

"I know what its like to praise God one minute and in the next minute yell and scream at my child -- and then to feel the burden of my descriptive behavior and the shame of my powerlessness to stop it"

Im the guilt queen. More than daily I find myself reacting to situations in a way that I wouldn't have predicted. Im not sure if theres a worse feeling than the burden of not knowing if you can change but you want to more than life itself. What an amazing drive to push forward, recognize that pattern and to follow in "imperfect progress" to change that pattern. Im ready. Here are some more of my highlighted quotes from my copy of the book. They speak for themselves and to really absorb it Ive had to read them over and over again. 

"Sometimes we girls think if we don't make instant progress then real change isn't coming." 

"Imperfect changes are slow steps of progress wrapped in grace....imperfect progress". 

"How hard something is often depends on your vantage point."

"We won't bend from the weight of our past, but we will bow to the One who holes out hope for a better future."

"Our emotions can work for us instead of against us."

Im so excited to move into chapter 2. Ive already read through a few chapters of the book but taking time to process through each chapter individually is going to push me into a more permanent heart change if I take time to pray through this study and absorb all that it has for me. I challenge you to read through this blog in a way that helps your heart grow too. Im airing my dirty laundry through this study so that I can personally grow, not so that you can learn more about the gross parts of my heart. Please don't follow these posts if your desire is to learn more about me as an imperfect person! I want you to be reading through these as encouraged, challenged women who are ready to make a change with me and willing to be just as authentic. 

Thank goodness for grace.