Where God's Word Meets Our Mess
When I started reading When It Hurts to Hope, I liked it. I felt like Rachel understood me, and I resonated with her experiences and observations. Partway through the book, however, I stopped reading it because I encountered multiple things that made me feel uneasy. This post addresses one of them—the concept that Christians are “worthy.”
Whether you’ve memorized a hundred verses or zero verses, this post is for you. I didn't write it because I'm expert on Scripture memorization; I wrote it because Scripture memorization is hard and we all need encouragement as we work toward it. This post includes three encouraging reminders that will hopefully inspire you to start or continue incorporating this practice into your life.
Frankly, though, I think the Church often puts too much pressure on believers to feel certain things—like to feel happy or excited about reading the Bible, praying, going to church, etc. I think this pressure can be more harmful than helpful, causing believers to focus too much on emotions and not enough on obedience. But based on what I've read in God's Word over the years, I've come to this conclusion: Our obedience matters more than our emotions.
Deep down, I know I’m not truly behind my friends and acquaintances who have husbands and children. I realize God’s plan for me is perfect, just as His plans for them are perfect. But I still feel behind. This feeling—and the way we choose to handle it—is the focus of this post. We’re going to explore the God-honoring way to handle it by diving into an Old Testament story.
But in that moment, I realized I might not be able to catch up with my friends. They were going so quickly, and I was going so slowly. As I resumed the race, a question popped into my head: How did we all start in the same place and end up in such different places?
In Part 1, I shared two questions to ask yourself about your mental health struggle. I mentioned that even though I’m not an expert on this topic, I deal with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) personally. I don't know every detail about your mental health struggle—perhaps anxiety, depression, or OCD—but I do know you can move forward no matter what it is. In this post, I'll share three more questions to consider as you decide how to move forward.
While I’m not an expert on mental health, I understand mental health struggles on a personal level because I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Whether you have OCD or a different mental health struggle, this post series is for you if you want guidance and encouragement about how to navigate that struggle. In this post, I'll share two questions you can ask yourself about your mental health struggle as you determine the best way to move forward.
Unfortunately, lies about friendship are sometimes believed by God’s people. I know this is true because I’ve fallen for them and allowed them to affect my life. Believing these lies certainly hurts our relationships with our friends, but it also hurts our relationships with God. I wrote this post to address two specific lies we believe about friendship so we can realign our beliefs with the truth and understand how to approach friendship biblically.
I’ve never consumed alcohol—not even a beer at a party or a glass of wine at a restaurant or a sip of champagne at a wedding. There’s a simple, specific reason I’ve avoided alcohol. It’s required intentionality. And while you may not agree with my reason, I want you to know what it is.
Tizzie's Tidbits of Truth 