Why Does Every Post Need a Title? I Suck at Titles.

Today I feel overwhelmed. I have been experiencing a period of huge spiritual growth and while it is exhilarating it is also overwhelming at times. Like I don't even know how to handle everything that God is trying to get through my thick head. I have a dear friend that likes to ask the question "What is God teaching you right now?" And right now I feel like it would take hours for me to answer that question. So. Much. Stuff.

Thursday mornings are my favourite because I get to go to a wonderful women's group Bible study. I never fail to leave challenged and encouraged. Today is no exception. We just finished up a study on Satan and the different ways he tries to gain access to us and manipulate and seduce us away from God and everything we know is right. It was heavy. Today we were talking about sin and she said something that really stuck out to me: The sin that is different from ours always seems worse.

How true is that? This really resonated with me because this has always been a struggle for me. I know very well that I am a sinner, but I tend to go around comparing my sin to other people's. Like "Ok, I argued with my husband today but at least I don't swear like he does." Or "I gossiped about someone today but at least I'm not sleeping around like she is." I like to find someone who's committed a bigger sin then I have.

But wait a minute. There's no such thing as a "big sin". Sin is sin. Period. My gossip fest is just as evil in God's eyes as the woman over there cheating on her husband. We looked at the story of the adulterous woman in John 8 and I realized that more often then not, I'm like the Pharisees in that story, dragging someone before God and shouting "Look what they did! Condemn them!" I hate to admit this, because I don't want to be like the Pharisees. I want to be like Jesus. He chose not to look at her sin. He chose not to condemn her. He chose to love her.

I'm not trying to say that we should overlook sin. God doesn't. In fact, Jesus told the woman in John 8 "Go now, and leave your life of sin." There is a time and a place to lovingly call someone out on their sin. But instead of going around finding faults in others that seem worse then mine, I need to look on them with love and forgiveness. I fall so short, every single day. Yet God is constantly forgiving me, showing me mercy and loving me. And He asks that I do the same. Who am I to condemn? This is something that I am trying to work on. I want my life to resemble Jesus as best it can. I have written on an index card in my Bible 10 things that being a wise woman looks like. One of them is being Beautiful- displaying the attractiveness of the Gospel. Jesus is so beautiful to me, and I need to display that beauty in the way I live, so others can experience His beauty for themselves. It's a work in progress. I know I'll never get it perfectly right this side of heaven. But I'm going to keep pressing on.

Just wanted to share with you some of what I've been learning and ask for your prayers. We're still patiently anxiously waiting for THE CALL. I'm trying to be present in the here and now, and not just look expectantly to the future. I don't want to miss the blessings in my life now. As always, thanks for reading. I'd love to hear what God's been teaching YOU lately!