I have been reading this book called Grace for the Good Girl, Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life by Emily Freeman, who writes at Chatting At the Sky and it is hitting me hard, every page and I mean that in the best possible sense, as a compliment to the author. It's spooky how sometimes I'll read a page and wonder how she got into my head, because she just described me so to a T. It has impacted me like no other book since 1000 Gifts has.I have underlined and circled and written notes on nearly every page. And could not recommend it more highly. Especially for those of us who are second generation Christians.
So here is a snippet from one of my favorite paragraphs so far:
" When you're used to wearing a mask, you are comfortable with compartmentalizing life. Mask-wearing good girls put worship in a slivered-up pie chart, dividing our lives into segments of importance. We assign percentages for work, service, prayer, school, exercise, PTA, meal planning, bill paying, dog walking, toilet cleaning, church and rest (if we're lucky). But the woman who has freely received the abundance of truth from Jesus abides in that truth as her very life. In other words, the lines of the pie chart disappear, and worship covers the full circle. Free women respond with worship in everything. We receive love, and extend worship. We embrace children, offering worship. We comfort, we laugh, we mourn, we dance, we read, we dream, we exist- all worship. We pay the bills, we go for a run, we enjoy a good movie, we make dinner, we welcome friends with open arms- worship, all worship. We send money and offer prayer and sit with a lonely neighbor, in Jesus name. We wait for love, we long for home, we pour out our hearts and hopes and fears and longing; we create with words and photos and colors and food, all beautiful beautiful acts of worship! "
4 comments:
Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. This is truly the way to worship him.
Every minute, everything, you are so right. Thank you so much for that. I will try to take that in to my every moment!
God Bless You.
Since you first wrote about this book I put it on hold at our library. I'm anxiously awaiting it :-) I feel like this might be just what I need to read. I have a goodly heritage with generations of saved people. I've been blessed. God is doing a work in my heart right now. Not sure what all it is going to be but I'm ready.
Wearing a mask and compartmentalizing life is a universal problem, I think. I am so guilty of that!
I love the idea of taking our everyday lives and experiences and placing it before God as an offering! If we wouldn't put it at His feet, we better rethink what we're doing.
I know I've posted before, but after further thought, I got it in a different way. Thank you.
I have several friends who from the same family and each has a blog. When they have read, taken to heart, heard from the heart, cried with or rejoiced with what each other has written they leave only the comment, 'foot prints.'
Please now accept my 'footprints' in response to your words of your beautiful journey.
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