Tuesday, June 29, 2010

How I let go

Just for fun picture: cousins Thomas and Sarah getting their money's worth at white water!


A very good friend sent me an email after reading my post "Allowing God to Work" (see below the cousin camp post) and asked how I actually let God take control. I am not an expert at all, but I enjoy being honest and trying to share what I have learned.
I don't have the time or energy to revise my reply to my friend and I gained permission to copy and paste what I wrote here on my blog.
So I'm copying it here in all its glory (sarcasm intended.) (And I did take out names and added the picture from google/istockphoto.com)
The question asked: How did you give it (the stuff I was stubborn about trying to control) to God?
My answer:
Oh goodness. It is a long, continual process. I am glad you asked. I'll try to include it in my next post. Basically I was being stubborn and a little bitter about a few issues. I knew I was holding back from God when I prayed and when I felt bitterness toward Him about my sweet kids not having a dad. (I know they have their Father in God but I still got upset when I felt they were missing out). I also felt guilt at times for feeling happy.
I finally got to a point where I decded to pray and be honest with God about those issues (he knew anyway but He wants us to be honest and forthright with Him) So I started letting other Christian friends that I trusted know about my feelings on those issues and God gave them the right words to say to encourage and pray for me. The issues started being "fixed" before my eyes and I recognized them as answered prayers. That helped build more trust for me to let go a little more each day of the bitterness. I allowed God to really heal my heart and let the guilt go. (guilt really can eat you alive-from the inside out.) the happiness kept growing and I finally could pray completely honestly with Him and tell Him I trust His will and I won't fight against it anymore (listen to that song on my blog) and then He showed me that if I am honest He can heal faster and also all my friends stepped up a notch without me asking and helped me a lot with house and yard
work and spending time really loving my kids and I could tell God was showing me "You let go and let me work". So I have.
I am not saying it is a completed process. I have to continually (on harder days it is hourly!) pray to God to keep taking these "issues" because as a human I naturally start grabbing them back and second guessing. So I just tell Him "Here you go again, sorry I took this (fill in the blank) issue back again."


I talked to a friend about this recently and one of the amazing things about this is that all God needs is mustard seed size faith! (and mustard seeds are tiny!!) we just have to be prepared to open our hearts and trust God with the things in our life that we want to control and He can work amazing things out...even exceed our dreams for what we think we want. He is our Father and He wants better than the best for us. We just have to listen to His words in His bible and with our tiny seed of faith, believe Him, tell Him through prayer we trust and believe and then get the heck out of his way!
I hope this was coherent. I just woke up. We can talk more soon. Love you.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

6 comments:

  1. Wow! Bonnie, you're a pretty amazing woman of God. Thank you for sharing this encouragement.
    Erica

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  2. Bonnie- I haven't visited your blog in a while due to computer issues. Reading your blog always gives me perspective, and somehow I feel like it helps me to be a better person. This specific post brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for making me want to try harder.
    <3
    Elizabeth

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  3. Thank you for this post! I have actually been worrying over something for the past couple of days and you have reminded me of how to better let go of it. I often "take it back" without even realizing it and that's so frustrating. Thank you for encouraging me today! I love you!

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  4. I have been following your posts through another. You are such an inspiring woman. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and giving perspective

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  5. Wow Bonnie I am speechless after reading that. I have read your blog for months, but today that touched what I needed. My husband fought cancer for the last 12 months and so far has won the battle. However when I thought are hard journey was over I lost my brother and his wife in an accident. The hurt and pain is so strong that some days I don't know how to deal or what to do. I have my faith, but as you said in your blog I still tend to hold back. Your words were eloquent and I could not have said that any better. You are truly an amazing woman!

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  6. Ditto to what these girls said, you are an amazing person. We can all use this kind of encouragement and remind ourselves to let go and let God do his work, its so easy to want to take full control of the reigns

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