If You Too Wrestle With Self-Depracation....

I have wrestled with having high expectations of myself all my life...anyone who knows me has probably lectured me on granting myself grace.  I wish I could tell you I had mastered this today but it still lingers in different ways in my life.  The great news is, I am finally believing truth and laying down a ton of that extra weight.  It feels incredible.  I feel free.  I feel peace.

If you've been there, you might like this excerpt from a bible study Amy Garrison blessed me with last year...

We are simple people.  You can't remember ten things at once.  Invariably, if you could remember ONE true thing...you'd be different.  Connect one bit of Scripture to one bit of life...apply one relevant thing from our Redeemer to one significant scene in your story.  Bring one bit of the Bible to one bit of your life...You can't deal with it all at once.  Scripture never does...life goes one step at a time.

So we see that the mark of true spirituality doesn't require ten giant steps forward.  One step at a time is sufficient.  In fact, you could argue that choosing one area of growth in godliness is an expression of humility.  It's a humble acknowledgement of our serious limitations as "simple people".

And what's more, growth in one area almost always affects every other area of our lives.  So rather than lament about the twenty ways we need to grow in godliness, let's be encouraged that as we isolate just one and devote ourselves to change in that area, by the grace of God it will affect the other nineteen.