An Invitation to Imperfect Progress

 

I started (okay, restarted) reading Unglued this morning & as promised yesterday, I'm going to blog about the book & the Online Bible Study (OBS) Melissa Taylor has done to go along with this book.

 

My first Heartwork from the OBS is to read chapter 1, work on the memory verse, & talk about what really jumped into my heart from reading chapter 1.

 

Now let me tell you RIGHT OFF (in case you haven't been around me in a while & heard me say it): I have THE BEST memory in the world, because I write EVERYTHING down. That's my positive way of saying: my memory REALLY stinks. So when I saw Memory Verse, my heart started racing. Yes, I realize no one is going to come test me & see if I have it memorized or not; but I want to get as much out of this study as possible AND I have BEEN wanting to memorize Scripture. The way I memorized things in school was to write, & write, & yes rewrite my notes (or chapters from a book). So, I have written this first memory verse in the space in chapter 1 & in my Prayer Journal. It's also highlighted in my Bible (as suggested by Melissa).

 

Now let me type it here to help it stick even more:

"...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1b

 

I ALSO learned of an app from a good friend of mine (one of my Moms in my Mommy Bible Study Group). She likes to do app reviews in her Blog from time-to-time & I've learned A LOT from that! The app is called BibleMinded. This is what it looks like (I can't wait to try it out during this study!).

Let me give credit now....if I type something that's a quote from the book & realize I have NOT given the appropriate credit, you'll see [LT] behind it. (It's the author's initials) And if I forget to do it, PLEASE forgive me! This is a blog, not an English paper.

 

I LOVE an author who is transparent: "I know what it's like to praise God one minute and in the next minute yell and scream at my child." ~Lysa TerKeurst

 

She had me laughing before I had read half of the 1st page (which was only a half page) & has already helped me realize things....like what she said in the transparency I pointed out.

 

Chapter 1's title is An Invitation to Imperfect Progress, which had me thinking: what the heck is that? Imperfect progress = imperfect changes are slow steps of progress wrapped in grace. [LT]. Here's a little hint (as Lysa pointed out): sometimes we girls think if we don't make instant progress, then real change isn't coming. But that's not so. The promise of this book is progress....nothing more, nothing less.....and we will walk through progress together.

 

We ALL have emotions & emotions are NOT bad! God gave us emotions so we could experience life, not destroy it. Some of us stuff these emotions, or we spew them out all over everyone, or we stuff them until they have no where else to go & ALL of them spew out at once.

 

WOW....am I excited to know that I am not alone! Even a very influential & inspirational woman of God (who goes all of the world talking about Him & writes about Him) has raw emotions...she's a REAL person, this woman I hear on the radio & read about. She deals with the same stuff I do (like the transparency I pointed out).

 

I can tell I am going to LOVE this book!

 

So, I want to hear from you:

1) How do you memorize Scripture?

2) PLEASE tell me I'm not alone with this emotion stuff!