Being Good - Damn it's hard!

Do you ever get frustrated with yourself? I do! I have a standard for being Rebecca Ragland. It formed over years of messaging and moral development, and spiritual longing. That Rebecca is a good person. Sometimes I'm her. But sometimes I'm the "Dr. Jekyl" of myself. That side that my family knows but few other people. She often falls short of the Rebecca Gold Standard.
I suspect you know exactly what I'm talking about. So how do we move into becoming our best self? The one we long to be?

Before I answer that question, based on the wisdom of others (who also fall short), let me say, let's be sure that our Gold Standard self is God's Standard self. I say that because God is much kinder to us than we are, and because God's standard leads to happiness, contentment, and abundant life. My desire to look like a super model is supremely self-defeating.

So here are some steps to move toward the "God-Standard" for our lives:

• Name it and Claim it: Name who you want to be specifically. What is your challenge right now? How does improving fall in with God's call for you? Parse it out and pray about it. Ask God to give you the power and courage and mindfulness to achieve your goal eventually.
• Stay in Community: being connected with others who know your struggle and also know you enables you to share your experience, be accountable, and grow in wisdom together.
• Remember it's a journey. We are all small, falible people. We all have "Dr. Jekyl" parts. Our redemption belongs to God, our perfection is a future gift. In Christ, we can take bigger steps than we ever thought possible, and we can do more than we could imagine, but, at the end of the day, it's still us in the mirror. It's us that God loves with immeasurable kindness and mercy.

I pray that I will always keep growing into the Rebecca God designed me to be. As long as I'm growing, I'm alive! I'm so glad to be with you on the journey! The good news is, we'll be together at the destination too! And that, my friends, will be a Holy Holy Party!!
-- Pastor Rebecca