He is so big and we are so small, and yet he cares about the most trivial things in our lives, each and every day. I’m convinced that is why He gives us the gift of parenthood. So that we can understand what it is like for Him to be our Father, based on how we see our own children. We are infants to Him in comparison to our understanding. When we have babies, we know how dependent they are on us, how little self-control they have, how helpless they are. And we don’t expect them to be anything else! When babies poop because they can’t control their bowels, no parent is shocked or angry. We know it’s part of our role in their lives to clean them up, make them feel comfortable, put on a fresh diaper, love on them, and totally expect they willl do it again in a few hours. God is fully expecting us to make messes of our lives. He knows we don’t know how NOT to. He WANTS to clean up our lives, give us fresh new mercies every day, and love on us after every mess. Of course, He wants to see us grow into toddlers, meaning we start to have some new understandings of life and change as we grow in our walk with Him. Maybe we potty train and he doesn’t have to clean up THOSE messes anymore. But look at the new messes a toddler makes! They wreak havoc in totally new ways. And He knows that, is prepared, and doesn’t love us any less for it. Even mature Christians are hot messes. He will gladly clean up our mistakes from childhood to our last days because we will undoubtedly continue to make them. Now imagine a toddler who won’t let their parent help them when they are in a bind. Imagine a toddler who is stubborn and insists on doing everything their way….(insert the strong-willed child) ….but one who also has free will. What a disaster. A toddler running around doing everything their way, making messes, trying to clean it up themselves, and never turning to their parent for help. God gives us the choice to run our own lives and will not intervene unless we ask. We have to accept His offer to clean up through surrender, repentance, and obedience. Not out of feelings of shame for our mistakes, but out of relief that we have help. Use your free will to choose God as a father and invite Him to continue teaching you His way. Invite Him to continue cleaning up your messes- I promise you He is happy to do it if you will let Him. AuthorJulie Hilton is a Christian therapist in Alpharetta, GA. To schedule a free phone consultation, call 678-329-9129.  So what does it mean to be conformed to this world? To me it means you buy into all of this BS above. It means you accept these pressures and standards as truth and spend your life and energy trying to live by these rules/ideas. And even worse yet, you pass them down to the next generation. Romans 12:2
Let me share with you how this verse shaped the entire mission statement for Empower Counseling. As a therapist, all day I am working with clients to sort through and process emotions, experiences, thoughts, and difficult situations. Women come in because, one way or another, the way things are going just isn’t working for them. They need change. They are lost, defeated, anxious, unhappy, and feel broken. That’s because the way the world tells us things should be is not the way God intended them. Here are some examples: Body image issues come from what the world tells women we should look like and it’s absolutely unobtainable. Self-esteem issues develop because the world tells us we have to prove our value and that we are “good enough” based on what we do, what we have, how we look or some other ludicrous measure of worth. Difficulties balancing work and home is the world telling us we should be able to be everything to everyone and that setting boundaries is selfish (or means you can’t handle pressure, which no one wants to feel). Relationship problems- the world telling us it’s really every woman for herself and you should look out for yourself first. Selfishness runs deep in this world, but it’s disguised in many different ways (even as protecting yourself, isn't that God's job?). And here’s an unpopular one- that we should all be happy, all the time, or something is wrong with us. Even happiness is used as a measure of whether you are doing “good enough” at life. How unreasonable. There are a million other examples. Take a moment to think about what “issue” you are dealing with and how maybe the problem is coming from the values and standards of the world. Write it down like I did the ones above so that you have it in front of you to confront. So what does it mean to be conformed to this world? To me it means you buy into all of this BS above. It means you accept these pressures and standards as truth and spend your life and energy trying to live by these rules/ideas. And even worse yet, you pass them down to the next generation. Often in the Bible if there is a command, it comes with a promise, just like Romans 12:2. Here’s the command: DO NOT be conformed to this world. Do not buy into this image described above! REJECT IT. The NLT says “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” Pause for a moment and imagine the power that is behind that statement- He will do the work, you just have to allow Him the space to do it. What’s the promise from obedience to that command? THEN you will be able to learn God’s will for your life. Which is GOOD, pleasing, perfect. Is that not the sweetest promise? Is that not what we are all searching for? What is counseling if it is not the transforming of your mind? One of your goals for therapy should be to change the way you think, to evaluate your mindset, to be willing to grow and change your perspective. Once you have allowed God to transform the way you think in therapy- THEN you will be able to decipher His will for your life. It also takes the pressure off of you to figure out His will. He has promised that will come. Your job is simply to be obedient to His command. Let’s identify what the world has taught you about yourself and how it has led you to a place of pain and grief. Let’s allow God the space to transform your entire mindset. And then let’s find His good, pleasing, and perfect will for your life. xoxo, -Julie |
Julie
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