Instead of writing a few different book reviews, I decided to just combine them in this one post because all of these books shared a similar message. Over the past few weeks I've read:
1. Changed Into His Image by Jim Berg
2. The Wisdom of God by Nancy Guthrie
3. Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman
4. Hands Free Life by Rachel Macy Stafford
5. Hands Free Mama by Rachel Macy Stafford (1/2 bc my library book ran out...also this was very similar to her other book, Hands Free Life.)
6. It's Not What You Think by Jefferson Bethke
All of these books have very different authors with different messages, but because my mind is in one place right now, I felt like they all came together.
Here are a few short take-aways:
1. Small Moment Living is necessary and good. It allows you to breathe and enjoy life and not feel burdened by all the things "you think you have to do."
2. Resting in Jesus is necessary and hard. My flesh battles and wants to take control, but Jesus is the ultimate wisdom and in him we find rest for when we are weary and burdened.
3. Life is short. Put down the phone. Put down the swiffer. Put down the windex. Enjoy your family. Be ALL THERE. Watch. Learn. Pray.
It's been eye opening to me how I've learned my problem with worry and control is connected so much with faith and small moment living. In a way, these books have broken me. They have made me question how I've lived. They've messed with me in a way that SO NEEDED TO HAPPEN. I've spent so much of my life TRYING to control and worrying about what will happen and what has happened. In fact, I just wrote about that in February. I've been a slave to those feelings and thoughts.
As I mentioned in a previous post....First, God showed me through his word how critical it was to switch my thoughts and feelings with his thoughts and feelings (Psalm 43:3-4, Psalm 51:6). Then I started to see how this began to change my trust in him. Because he was helping discipline my mind with all of him, less of me, began to replay in my head. I began to realize that many of the small and big things I worried about were me trying to take control of a situation. Worry was a symptom of my pride (control) and lack of faith. God opened my eyes to all the crazy ways I tried to take control.
-Replaying situations in my head and trying to figure out how I could have handled it better.
-How I could change someone.
-Obsessing with how my house appeared. Spending too much time doing things that didn't matter.
-Being unsatisfied when I didn't handle things perfectly.
-Manipulating prayers so that the outcomes would be in my favor. (Yeah...not fun admitting that one)
-RUSHING through life and not stopping and smelling the roses
These books helped me to specifically see ways I wasn't living correctly and gave strategies for how to correct these ways. Ultimately, the Bible is the ultimate source of truth, but I felt like God used these other books in a big way to give me perspective from other people who struggled too.
All that to say, changing is so hard. There are days I want to rush, I want to worry, I want to control, I want to obsess and I want to live in a way I've lived for 28 years. I feel like I'm battling for this change, and I'm trying to see that battle as progress, especially since there was no battle, even a few months ago. In the moments I do fail, I'm trying to thank God for helping me to be aware, because as Rachel Macy Stafford says, "The truth hurts, but the truth heals." Every time I recognize another way to change, it heals me, it brings me closer to Christ and ultimately closer to Phil and Cora.
Although change is hard, I'm also recognizing peace replacing impatience, anger, worry, discontentment and suffering. Things come up and instead of freaking out and trying to take control, I'm stopping and resting. I'm praying more. I'm not as scared all the time. God keeps pouring all this Scripture out to me about his control and his plan and his way and it's starting to sink in. I've fought for a long time, but now I'm surrendering. So I guess I shouldn't say I'm battling for change...I guess I'm surrendering for change? I'm not sure if that makes sense, but it does in this moment. I'm not perfect in this endeavor and most days, I fail a lot. But praise God that he turns "our striving's into works of grace."
Psalm 1:3
"He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither."
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