move...

i only have time for a quick {non-proofread} post but thought i would share this thought.  yesterday as i was driving to target i was listening to 'i dare you to move' by switchfoot and this line  {that i've heard millions of times before} really got stuck in my head...

'maybe forgiveness is right where you fell...'

one thing that i have struggled with in my life {and particularly in my marriage} is having a hard time letting go of mistakes i have made.  i can take a major guilt trip around the world and back and still not be able to let go of the ways that i fail others.  i am at the point in our book where the focus has shifted to jesus and the fact that he is the 'secret' to the love dare.  i sensed the author rolling out a 'salvation message' and initially i started to skim over this part thinking - 'oh yeah...i know all this...i've already accepted Jesus Christ as my savior...I already love him and follow him...'  but then i realized that i needed to hear this all over again because there are still ways that i am living my life that do not reflect a complete faith in Christ.  


i started reading and thinking about the perfect love of God and how i am called to love {to the best of my ability} with that kind of love.  i realized that one thing getting in my way is my inability to forgive myself for the ways i have failed in the love department and then move forward. 

do any of you ever get hung up on this?  do you ever see yourself spiraling into unkind thoughts, harsh words, disrespectful actions towards your husbands and suddenly feel like all of this loving marriage business is beyond your grasp...you're just not cut out for it...does anyone else ever have those moments?  and does anyone else waste precious energy and brainpower holding onto those moments of failure, allowing them to slowly eat away at the abundant life they are trying to live? it's really like i get knocked down and then don't even try getting back up again {sorry...that sounds an awfully lot like a chumba wumba song}.

if you ever feel this way, maybe the words from that song can pierce your heart like they did mine...

forgiveness is right where you fell

the grace, love, and forgiveness of Christ covers ALL of our screw-ups...the ones that we have already committed and the ones we will commit tomorrow.  this doesn't mean that we stop trying...it just means that we have the freedom to move forward from our mistakes knowing that in the instant that we acknowledged them as a mistake Christ wiped them away.  i think he is probably pretty insulted when i keep dragging back up the trash that he has already disposed of...the longer i let that stuff sit around my house the more it stinks...

so my simple word {after this rambling post} is this: sisters, as soon as you got tripped up God lovingly extended a hand to lift you back up and in that moment he forgot that you ever fell down {no matter how far of a fall it was}...you should do the same...release yourself from the mistakes you have made in your marriage and move forward in the freedom of God's love and forgiveness...

wherever you are girls - 'i dare you to move - i dare you to lift yourself up off the floor...'

{check out the whole song HERE - and just ignore the weird commercial at the beginning : )}