#perfectlove

Gods perfect love has been shown many times in my life.  All I have to do is accept it.  I grew up with a demanding mom who I thought expected me to be perfect.  Therefore I had a misguided perception of God's love as a child.  I thought God expected me to be perfect too.  Somehow with my mom I could never be perfect enough for her no matter how hard I tried.  This is still true today. Later as I grew older I discovered that God's love was different .  He didn't expect me to be perfect like my mom did.  All I had to do was accept him and He would accept me just as I was.  In the last few years I had gained 120 pounds.  Each time I gained a pound my mom was critical as always, but God just kept loving me.  But last January 4th God did something different about my weight problem.  I had just given up trying to loose by that time.  He woke me up early that morning and put a thought in my head that I needed to go back to O.A. (a 12 step program for people with eating disorders)  I had been to O.A. before and had lost 50 pounds and kept it off for 5 years with His help.  I got a gentle nudging again saying you need to go back to O. A.  "But God I said, I am so much older I can't go back to O.A. I haven't got the willingness to work a program again.  But God, this will be too hard for me.  I weigh so much more than I did last time.  It will be too hard."  But God won me over.  I asked several friends on Facebook to pray for me.  I got 12 responses back of people committed to praying for me to have the willingness to do it.  Well 9 months later and now I have lost over 60 pounds and dropped sizes in clothes from a 22/24 to a 14/16.  God has been the focus of my recovery.  Through my recovery I have gotten a closer walk with Jesus through it too.  God loved each of us enough to give His favorite thing away(His son Jesus).  He had His son die so that we might live with Him eternally.  That is totally showing His #perfectlove for  us all.  We are all so blessed.  Thank you for sending us Jesus to die on that cross for our sins and for raising Him from the grave.  Thank you for the everlasting perfect love that only you can give.  Thank you for your patience with us Lord.  Help us to be strong enough to weather the storms life brings into our lives.  We know we can have the God Confidence that you can give us if we want it.  Help us to remember that with you all things are possible.   That is God's #perfeclove!

Who You Are: A Message To All Men

Who You Are: A Message To All Women

Been There, Done That, Loved It!

I have now done two online bible studies with Proverbs 31 Ministries and one Gap study.  My first one was on "Stressed-Less Living in our Chaotic World" it was so wonderful. I got so much out of it.  I didn't do the blog hop or the phone calls but I really got a lot out of it and learned how to give God all my stress and problems instead of eating over them.  I also loved the praise and prayer days that we shared.  I got feedback from someone at P31 each week asking about my concerns and letting me know that they were praying for me. I am so thankful to P31 for having that one.  It saved my life and helped restore my marriage.  The next bible study I did was their latest one "What Happens When Women Say Yes to God".  This one was so inspiring.  I really was able to get in touch with God on a more personal level and really started listening to what God was telling me to do.  I also participated in a Facebook small group on this one.  It was so special to have twenty something ladies in our group communicating and sharing our hearts and I was able to step out in faith and do so much more for God because I actually started listening to Him instead of telling him all my problems and needs.  I even participated in the phone calls and Facebook parties.  They are also very inspiring and were so helpful.  What I think is so neat is that you can participate as little or as much as you want to in their bible studies.  When our last bible study was almost over I started feeling so bummed out because I didn't know what to do before the next study started.  Then I was invited to participate in Real Life in the Gap - They Said Yes!  This is something that is offered to Facebook small groups during the time in between bible studies. This bible study was really great because they taught us how to dig deeper into scriptures to find deeper meanings of the scriptures.  I learned so much more. We didn't purchase a book or anything we just used our bibles and websites that have tools to use to learn more about the bible. I even learned to Blog Hop through this study.  I finally listened to God and started my own blog.   I got behind on the last week.  But you know what that is okay too.  They know that we all have many things going on in our lives and sometimes we get behind.  That is not a problem with P31.  I hope that helps you know a little more about how special these online bible studies are.  Right now I am in TN but I live in TX.  I couldn't stay involved in a regular bible study when I am out of town.  As a matter of fact my husband is leading a bible study tonight in TX that I will be missing. 

I hope you enjoy your online bible studies as much as I have.   If you are just thinking about it I hope you just take the plunge and just do it.  I really recommend the small groups they give you the feel or being in a group that you miss just doing the studies by yourself and commenting online.  Thanks P31 for doing such awesome studies.