Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life

To accept the lively, the messy, and the unexpected things in our days, knowing that God sees them and has an eternal perspective, is to say with confidence I receive your timing.

The best part of hiding is being found.

The story of redemtion and healing is that Jesus came to exchange my not-good-enough with his better-than-I-could-ever-imagine. He came to trade my life for His, my weak for His strong, my ashes for His beauty. He longs for each of us to recieve the gift of Himself.

We may call it "people pleasing," but it is entirely self-serving because it is really all about keeping myself comfortable. Boiled down, it could be more accurately called "me pleasing.

Life is so much further from my control than even I know.

You miss the living because you are waiting for perfect, and so you let goodness and blessings pass you right on by.

God is already carrying your load. Why do you insist on carrying it too?

It isn't about what we are supposed to 'do'; it is about what we choose to 'believe'.

Rather than admitting you don't know what to do next, you fake it in public and feel lost when you're alone.

I want to encourage you today: needy is a beautiful place to be. When we recognize our need, we will finally look around for something (or someone) to fill it.

But understand that the reason it is so difficult to extend forgiveness to those who have failed us is because we are unable to receive forgiveness for our own failures.

Knowing what you have makes all the difference.

He (God) never promises that our families will be safe. Not in the way we think. He does promise his presence, though.

Are you trying to be who Jesus wants you to be? Or do you trust him to bring out who he has already created you to be? It is vital to recognize the difference between these two questions because one leads to death, the other leads to life.

Discontentment shows up when we focus on what we can't have rather than what we do have.

You have a longing to be understood, but still feel the need to protect yourself.

These outward identities we build for ourselves are not all that we are. A person is made of so many layers. Skin is just the top layer. It's the part you can see, so when you walk into a room, others won't run into you. It's the brown-hair, brown-eyes layer; the you-look-good-in-green layer. Your outside is important because God made that part. He made you on purpose, uniquely beautiful. But you can't stop there, because that's your body, your skin, your outside. Dead people have all that stuff too.

Even though I may feel unsafe and unacceptable, I am accepted in Christ.

Worry is a thief, Fear is a liar, and Anxiety is their trembling, furrow-browed baby.

Because I care so much about what you think, my hiding has everything to do with you. I desperately want to manage your opinion of me. Nearly anything I do is to convince you I am good.

The number one reason we don't believe things that are true is because they don't always feel true.

These hiding places may have been helping you cope, but they are not who you are. These good girl voices challenge your identity.

The voice of the Dreamer often pushes us to escape. When we listen to her voice, our dreams are held captive. We dream things shaped by heaven but twisted by the world, things of escape and vacation and eternal lounging.

... the voice of the Dreamer convinced me that 'later' would always be better than 'now', that 'someday' is where life will really happen and high school is just something we have to get through before we can live our real lives.

Just because it doesn't make sense 'to me' doesn't mean it doesn't make sense 'at all'.

We all believe somewhere deep inside that we should be better, be doing more, be someone other than who we currently are. ...we feel as if we aren't good enough.

Some girls look to fill the emptiness with their rebellious ways and get into trouble. Other girls try hard to fill the emptiness with good things and get praise. But both girls are reaching for something we'll never find outside of God.

We praise people who never let on they are suffering.

All he wants is simply you—minus your good works, minus your perfect attendance, minus your politeness. When you really believe that, you may discover that all you want is Jesus, simply Jesus. Not just to get to heaven or to help you be a good person or do the right thing, but to simply love and be loved by him.

Picture a girl with her arms full of small packages, too many to hold all at once. When they topple and fall all around her, she stoops down and scoops them all back up, literally re-collecting all the gifts that are already hers. To set your mind is to recollect truth that already belongs to you.