new book

The other day I was reading a blog that I love called Joy's Hope and she mentioned a book she was reading called Grace for the Good Girl. It sounded like an interesting title so I looked up the book, read a chapter on the website and was super interested.

I am about eight chapters in and it has been so amazing. I think the title is a little misleading because not everybody would consider themselves a "good girl" but what the book has to say really applies to a lot of people. It talks about how the way, we as women, hide. Whether it is hiding from something, hiring behind something or just hiding something. Then it talks about the finding and the freedom of being found.

In the introduction it says, "My idea of who I should be is at war with who I am. I want to be perfect in every situation. I just do. I want to know what to do. I want to know how to do it right. And I want to do it . All. By. My. Big. Self. Not only do I want to do everything perfectly, I want to look perfect while I do it. I want to act perfect and sing perfect and have perfect teeth. I want to parent perfectly, to wife perfectly, and to have a clean house all the time." Once I read this I was like, "I think she's talking about me." It all goes back to my previous post about grace. For some reason I have in my head that I need to do everything right. Not sure where that came from...still trying to figure it out but I know it's not true and if I continue to think that way my life is going to be very difficult.

The book goes on to talk about expectations and definitions. This is a big one for me. I place so many expectations on myself that I continually fail. It eventually becomes super tiring and defeating. This is something I have been working on for a while and continue to do so. The author, Emily Freeman says, "When we believe that God expects us to try hard to become who Jesus wants us to be, we will live in that blurry, frustrating land of Should Be rather than trust in The One Who Is. We will do whatever we believe it takes to please God rather than receive the acceptance that has already been given. We will perform to live up to what we believe his expectation is of us rather than expectantly wait on him." Wow...I want to do that. I want to learn how to wait on him and not feel like I need to do everything myself. It's such a great reminder to me that God has already accepted me for who I am and that I should do the same.

I love the different ways God chooses to show us things about ourselves. This is just a small portion of what I have received from reading this book and hopefully I'll share more as I go along. I would ask you, what are the expectations you put on yourself? How can you push into Him and receive the acceptance he has given you?