becoming more

I was in the bookstore the other day and came home with this.

I had been hearing about it and looking for it and was thrilled when I saw it sitting on the shelf at Mardel.

*squeal*

I have only read the first chapter. But I can already tell it’s going to be so good.  Really the whole idea behind this book is what my story was… wanting to be more than the girl that goes by the rules and tries to do the things she’s supposed to do.  I was like that and yet I was very empty inside.. I wanted to “become more than a good Bible study girl”.

I remember when I was very young, the church we went to sent home offering envelopes with my name already printed on them.  There was a place on the envelope for me to put check marks by:

• Present  That one is easy… yes I am here!
• Offering  Yes, I was always given a quarter to put in the envelope when I was young and gave my own money when I started working.
• Study lesson  Most of the time I did that. The lessons weren’t very long.
• Bible read daily.  I tried to… I remember making time to sit and read something so I could put a little check in the box every week.
• I’m sure there is something I’m forgetting.  It seems like there were always five boxes.  Well, whatever it was, I tried to check it.

I can remember feeling particularly good about myself when I had done what I thought I could to fulfill the requirements laid out before me.  And yet,  I was just going through the motions of doing a lot of things trying to make myself right.  And it was a futile struggle because I couldn’t  make myself right.  I could do a million things and yet still be in the same struggle wondering why I couldn’t feel Him at all.  I have so been there.  And then I realized that  “they must be done with the greatest expectation and heart cry for God to lead us into a deeper and more life-changing connection with Him”.*

*quote from chapter one.  There were so many things I could have quoted from chapter one, but just stuck with that one thought since it is such a key statement.

I’m excited to see what Lysa has to say in the rest of the book.  : )