Episode #74: Retrospect — Living an Abundant Life Full of Love and Delight

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Grit ‘n’ Grace: Good Girls Breaking Bad Rules

Episode #74: Retrospect: Living an Abundant Life Full of Love and Delight

 

Cheri

Hey, this is Cheri Gregory…

 

Amy

…and I’m Amy Carroll…

 

Cheri

…and you’re listening to “Grit ‘n’ Grace: Good Girls Breaking Bad Rules.” The podcast that helps you lose who you’re not, love who you are, and live your one life well.

 

Amy

We’re delighted that you’ve joined us for another installment of our retrospect series as we get intentional about living examined lives, together!

 

Cheri

Okay. So, you just finished doing your personal manifesto. Now, I know you’ve been thinking about it all year long, but you finally put yourself on a deadline and did it. And I’m really proud.

 

Amy

Let’s tell the truth, you gave it to me as an assignment.

 

Cheri

Okay, okay, you know, that helps.

 

Amy

I’m so glad, because it made me do it.

 

Cheri

How long did it take you?

 

Amy

Not as long as I thought it was going to.

 

Cheri

Yay!

 

Amy

I really thought that it was going to take a long time. Now, I went to the website, and there is a worksheet there. That worksheet is so helpful. So I did the worksheet, and then I sat down. I bet I spent about a total of an hour.

 

Cheri

That is such a wonderful, wonderful thing to hear, because so many women seem to think that it’s going to take them hours, and hours, and hours. And an hour really is, I think, a pretty good guesstimate for a working draft of a personal manifesto.

 

Amy

I think that’s why I had procrastinated, because I really thought it was going to take a lot longer, but the tools that you and Cathy shared helped so much. It really expedited things!

 

Cheri

I’m so glad, I’m so glad to hear that.

 

Amy

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

 

Cheri

And I want to give credit to our – the Overwhelmed book launch team because a lot of the women gave us feedback. And their feedback is what went into the worksheets for how to create your personal manifesto. So, we’ll put the link for that in the show notes here. So, what we’re going to do for the next few weeks here is we’re just going to kind of walk through our personal manifestos. We didn’t really talk to each other about them beforehand. I found it wonderful that in many ways, they have a lot in common. But, of course, we’ve expressed ourselves uniquely, because God made us each different. So, this week what we’re going to look at is… where we’re finding our identity. What our source of identity is. So go ahead and share the line from your personal manifesto.

 

Amy

Well, I wrote I’m rooted and established in the love of Jesus, the sole source of full and abundant living.

 

Cheri

Go ahead and unpack some of those words for us, ‘cause I know how intentional you are at your word choice.

 

Amy

Well, this is really found in Ephesians 3, lots of you probably thought, “Hmm, that sounds like something I’ve heard before.” That was one of the things that you and Cathy said, is, “Hey, it can be mostly scripture.” And I liked that. I did that for some of mine. So, Ephesians 3:17 B says, “And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the Lord’s holy people to grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep is the love of Christ. And all God’s daughters exhaled, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge. That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” You know, I want to live that life, I want to live the fullest life that I was created for. I want to live that life that Jesus said he promised to us, which is abundant life. You know, I’m like, this is going to be my year. I should say, that one of the things about these manifestos that you and Cathy said, is that they’re almost like statements of faith because there are a lot of mine that are like, I wrote them as a positive thing knowing that I have to grow into them.

 

Cheri

I love that you said these are kind of statements of faith. ‘Cause what we say is, “This is who we are, and who we aspire to be through God’s grace and power.”

 

Amy

Yes.

 

Cheri

To put it in present tense, we had a few women that were a little worried that we were asking them to lie. It’s like, no. This is who God created us to be.

 

Amy

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

 

Cheri

And if we’re not there yet, we still want to focus on … Cathy always says, “These are aspirational.” Some of them are actual. Some of them are aspirational.

 

Amy

Oh, I love that.

 

Cheri

Yeah.

 

Amy

So I think I have both of that going on here. I have some that’s actual, because you know I’ve been walking with the Lord for a while … 40 years now. Four decades.

 

Cheri

I love it.

 

Amy

I’ve learned things along the way, but one of the things … I had this big birthday recently. And I, just got showered and spoiled rotten for a whole week, really. A lot of it was just messages from friends, and family, and telling me how much they love me, and all that. Truthfully, it made me squirm. I had to examine that because I thought, “Why am I so uncomfortable? Why do I feel so overwhelmed by this? Why do I feel so unworthy of this? Why do I feel so resistant toward…” These are people who on their own wrote things that I assume meant they didn’t have to do it.

 

Cheri

Listen to you.

 

Amy

Why do I feel this way? I thought, you know, I think part of it is the nature of what you and I do in ministry. Which is, we look at our flaws and our faults a lot so we can write about it, and speak about it, and talk about where God is in it. I realized I’ve gone an opposite direction that is not healthy, which I’m wallowing in this stuff that I write about a lot.

 

Cheri

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

 

Amy

But, I don’t want to wallow anymore. I want to walk in the fullness that God’s promised us. And I want to be fully comfortable that I am completely loved by God. So that when those things come my way, I can just absorb them with Thanksgiving.

 

Cheri

So, what do you think that’s going to look like or sound like? What’s something in your mind, as you look to the New Year that would be a little different?

 

Amy

I think that I have to confront my own thoughts. We’ve talked about physical sensations for different things. My physical sensation for wallowing is in my stomach. Just this butterflies, kind of, a little bit low-level anxiety. When I start feeling that, I need to probably have some scripture cards and read the truth about myself. I know that’s a simple … kind of sounds like a baby Christian thing to do, but, goodness gracious, I need to do what I need to do to get where I need to go. You know?

 

Cheri

Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, sometimes, simple doesn’t mean easy.

 

Amy

Yes.

 

Cheri

A lot of times we just need to go back to the basics. I think it can be so easy to think that after all these years we’re doing high level stuff. I think going back to the basics we can never go wrong.

 

Amy

Okay. So, you really wrote this so beautifully. It’s kind of the same thought, but your words are just beautiful. So, read yours to us.

 

Cheri

I am a daughter of God’s delight. That is a complete identity statement for me. That comes straight from my life verse, which is Psalm 18:19, and I love all of Psalm 18. It’s a powerful chapter about rescue. But, the verse specifically is, “He brought me out into a spacious place, he rescued me because he delighted in me.” I just love the imagery of that. I love the idea of a spacious place just makes me go, “Ahh, yes.” There’s a sense of relaxation, a sense of rest. And I just love … The first time I found that verse, I was actually in an eating disorder unit in a mental hospital when I was 17.

 

Amy

Wow.

 

Cheri

The entire chapter talked about God fighting and rescuing me. It was the first time I realized that that was something God would do for me. But, then the idea that he would do it not out of a sense of obligation, not because he was rolling his eyes, going, “Well, I have to. I’m God,” but because he actually delights in me. That has just been a touch point for me every since then, for decades. When I feel attacked by other identities of who I am or who I am not, coming back to I am a daughter of God’s delight. For whatever reason, I’m going to trust and believe that He actually delights in me.

 

Amy

That is so beautiful. When you said a minute ago, I am a daughter of God’s delight. God is delighted in me. I had this visceral reaction. I totally teared up. If you’re listening today, you should just stop and say that out loud. Like, “God is delighted in me.” Make it personal, not just listening to Cheri and saying, “Well, that’s nice that God delights in Cheri, you know?”

 

Cheri

That’s true.

 

Amy

That’s powerful, powerful stuff.

 

Cheri

That’s something I feel like I’ve done better at this year. I’m looking forward to doing even better at next year. This year what I’ve seen is I’m laughing a lot more. I don’t have a laugh meter in my office or hanging around with me, but I’m just aware that I’m laughing a lot more than I think I have in past years. I’m being more intentional about giving into the laughter. I’ve tended to be stingy before. I’ve tended to be, like, that wasn’t funny enough to warrant a laugh. I don’t know why my brain does these things. But I’ve been more willing to just belly laugh and to just really either be silly or just have fun. And that’s not the only meaning of delight, but that’s the one I’m becoming more aware of. And so, one of the things we’d love to recommend to anybody listening is to get started. If you haven’t already done your own personal manifesto, we’ll put the link to the worksheet in the show notes. And one of the first things that I do see a lot of women put on their personal manifesto is some kind of statement about their relationship with God. It usually anchors them into their identity. Knowing who we are influences everything else that we do.

 

Amy

So true. So true.

 

Cheri

Head on over to GritNGraceGirls.com/episode74 and click on new episode.

 

Amy

There you’ll find the transcript and a free download that you can use as you pray-cess today’s episode for yourself.

 

Cheri

Come on over and find our Facebook group also. We’ll be doing some fun Facebook live (sessions). Just go on Facebook and search for grit n grace girls. You’ll find our page and our group as well. www.facebook.com/groups/gritngracegirls

 

Amy

Join us next week for another retrospect conversation, because an examined life is a better life.

 

Cheri

For today: grow your grit … embrace God’s grace … and when you run across a bad rule, you know what to do: go right on ahead and…

 

Amy ‘n’ Cheri

BREAK IT!!!