The Struggles We Share

I recently asked a group of women to share with me what their biggest struggles were in their personal lives. Their answers broke my heart and brought me to tears. Literally, I found myself with a pile of crinkled up tissues scattered around my bed as I sat there seeing these women so openly pour their struggles out. As I read each response I was surprised at how each one was different and yet I could relate to each struggle on some level. Each time I opened a new response I felt I needed to go back and add to my own list of struggles.

So why did I ask this question? I asked because I think as women, we are our own biggest critic. We demand so much of ourselves. And honestly, people often demand and expect an unreasonable level of perfection out of us. We don’t often need someone else to tell us where our weaknesses are. . . we know. If we weren’t exhausted from trying to be perfect all the time we might have energy to work on those weaknesses a little more.  Am I right?

Here I sit trying to decide what to do with all of these struggles I now feel entrusted with. There is so much I want to reach out and tell these women. To tell you. To tell myself. There is so much our Heavenly Father has to say about these things. We need to hear them.  And we need to hear them over and over again. I will dare to say that most of us know the “sunday school” answers to the things we struggle with. We might even know the right Bible verse to quote when someone asks. The thing is, we need more than to just hear it once or twice. We need to hear it every day. Until it soaks into our being. We need more than to just read and hear what God is telling us. We need it to soak so deep into our souls so that we no longer have our own thoughts . . . just His. So immersed in the Word of God that when our weakness begins to show we immediately turn to Christ for what we lack without even realizing it. I want the fullness of Christ to be so embedded in my soul that it seeps out of my very pours and controls every thought of my mind.

2 Corinthians 10:5 says this, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. ” Every thought. Every argument. Every claim. Everything and anything that is contrary to what God says about us. So about those struggles . . . God says we are made in His image! When we look in the mirror and see the endless list of struggles and imperfection we are to take those thoughts and make them obedient to Christ!

Over the next few posts I want to have a discussion about these struggles. I want us to discover what God has to say about them. I want us to learn together and then step into the truth of who we are not and who we are in HIM. I want to find practical, real life ways we can apply this knowledge to our daily, messy lives. It is hard to reveal our struggles with others in an open and honest way, but for many of us that is the first step in the road to healing and acceptance. Will you join me as we walk this road together? What are your biggest struggles in life?

In the meantime, I want you to know that you are not perfect. Neither am I. You are exactly the person God Himself created you to be. He knows the hairs on your head and the thoughts of your mind. He knows the weaknesses and struggles you don’t even know you have. With this intimate knowledge of you, God Almighty chooses to love you with an unrelenting and all-encompassing love. You are His beloved!

 

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