Saturday, February 20, 2010

The weight of guilt

Like most women, I walk around carrying quite a bit of guilt - particularly mommy-guilt. Over the past few years as I have journeyed through motherhood with other mom's I have met very few mom's who do not suffer from this condition. It just seems to come with the birth certificate.

We try so hard to make sure we are doing the right thing with our children that often we become overwhelmed. What activities should our little one be in and when should s/he start? How is s/he doing compared to the other kids at preschool? How much should they eat? How much exercise is enough? How many activities are too many? Am I too firm? Am I not firm enough? Do they play well with others? How soon do they need to read, to be taking a foreign language, to be doing AP classes.... AHHHHHHHH! No wonder by the end of the day most of us are surly and raising our voices while we shuttle children from one activity to another and try to prepare healthy and well-balanced meals that will give our children's brain every nutrient it needs?


One of my best friends recently asked me, "how much can you do in one day?" It was a serious question that came from her feelings of inadequecy. She really wanted to know what I thought she should be able to accomplish in one day while juggling responsibilities at work and at home. She felt guilty for not getting the laundry done because she was working. She felt guilty for not giving 150% at work because she needed to take care of her family. This kind of guilt serves no purpose and only makes you feel and do less than your best. Despite what my mother's generation believed, as individual women, we canNOT do it all - or we at least cannot do it all well.

There are many other forms of guilt that all of us carry no matter our age, gender, marital status, or ethnicity. What are you feeling guilty about today?

Being wracked with guilt over decisions you have to make on a daily basis is a useless enterprise. It is a far different cry from feeling guilty for doing emotional or physical harm to your child, spouse, or another living creature.

If the guilt that you carry with you is caused by the first, I want to encourage you to throw off the shackles of guilt that make so many of us feel inadequate and "less-than". If you are making the very best decisions and acting the best way you can in any given moment and it turns out to be incorrect, then you just have to move on. When you lose your patience and you shout at your spouse or kids - apologize and let it go.

God convicts us of our sin but He does not prolong our agony with guilt. When we are on the wrong path, we know it - God's Spirit convicts us of it. When we confess it and ask for forgiveness (from God and the one we have wronged) - it is gone. God does not want us to weigh ourselves down with "I should have's" or feel unlovable. God wants us to let Him work in our lives to heal and redeem our mistakes and give us plenty of hope and joy for the future.

If you are feeling inadequate for your journey and loaded down with guilt, I hope that you will ask God to help you let go of the past. Ask Him to heal wounds that you have both received and created and to give you the tools you need for your daily work - whether it is in or outside the home. Each of us has been tasked by God with a holy vocation. Go into it with prayer each day and allow yourself to be convicted by God's Spirit but not weighed down with the guilt that separates us from others and from God.

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Welcome

Welcome to the Live Oak Church blog site. (liveoak-church.org) The church we are forming in the Cedar Park/Leander area of Central Texas envisions doing community in a new way. This site gives us the opportunity to share what is going on in our church community and to help sustain the growth of strong Christian individuals and families.

Our goal is to explore issues that we as growing Christians face daily in our communities and impact who we are and who we want to be. We want to help all of us learn to not run after the successes of this world but to be impactful in God’s name.

We feel very blessed and excited to be a part of this.

Greg and Chesney

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Calendar

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Friday, February 5, 2010

Salvation is Here

I have lived most of my life in at least some state of anxiety. Even as early as the first and second grade, I remember having what I now recognize as anxiety attacks. This is very difficult, not only for myself, but also for my family because it makes me edgy and short-tempered. It is something that is a daily struggle for me to try to turn over to God.

Joel Houston has written a song titled, “Salvation is here”. I love this song and have listened to it on my ipod a lot, lately. The first line states “God above all the world in motion. God above all my hopes and fears. I don’t care what the world throws at me now I’m going to be alright…because I know my God saved the day and I know His Word never fails and I know my God made a way for me. Salvation is here.”

I don’t know if these lyrics touch you, but they go straight to the core of my being and soothe my fears. They remind me that I am not in control, God is and He will take care of me.

In Jeremiah 29:11, God states that He knows the plans He has for us – plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.

For me, at least in this moment, is enough. I hope for you, it is also.

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