Heart Overhaul: Work in Progress

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.

Philippians 3:13

Today I am celebrating! What? You might ask. The fact that I have one room (my oldest son's room) in my house completely done and painted! In just a short while after I write this, I will have my younger son's room also completed. 

CELEBRATION! Yes that's right I am celebrating what some might think are the little things. A month into moving you might think I should be further along than I am, but let me give you a little inside scoop. I tend to get a bit scattered, especially when I have something big to accomplish. I have been working a little bit here and a little bit there but never actually finishing a whole room.

So today I have refocused my energy into finishing one room at a time. This way I can really step back and see the progress  I made. Am I done? No! This house is a work in progress and by now I thought I would have a lot more before and after pics to show you, but for now you will have to settle for one room and that is ok.

When God is doing a renovation on our hearts during a time of transition or promotion, I think he works on one room in our hearts at a time. Why? Because he knows that is all we can handle. 

When I wrote my book Arm Yourself, did I write randomly combining the sword and the helmet into one chapter and reference scriptures that had to do with the shield also? No, that would have been a mess and hard to keep up with. I organized the parts of the armor and different topics by chapters to help the reader better understand each individual piece and the thought process behind it all.

How many times do we let our thoughts carry us into places we know we shouldn't have gone? How many times today have you allowed your fickle emotions to dominate a conversation and said something you now regret? How many times have we been present in front of our children but our minds were somewhere else completely?

Be present in the process and patient with the progress. I will admit I have had days where I woke up overwhelmed thinking about how much I still needed to do instead of focusing on  what was already done. Where does this kind of mindset lead me? To being ungrateful for the process, impatient in the process and unable to enjoy each victory or accomplishment as it comes.

If you are in the middle of a difficult season in your life like the new mother surviving the sleepless nights of her newborn. Or maybe you are just rejoining the workforce after a stint as a stay at home mom and you are having a hard time adjusting to the demands of work and family. Perhaps God is tugging on your heartstrings to lead or be involved in ministry which takes you completely out of your comfort zone and you don't want anything to rock your boat of familiarity and routine. 

Don't shy away from the process God wants to bring you through and allow God to be present in your progress. The uncomfortable, the difficult, the stretching...it's all apart of the growth required for him to work on your heart one room at a time and for you to become the person God created you to be.

As my house is a continued work in progress, so is my heart and so is yours. The closer I grow to the Lord the more he shows me areas of my heart that need pruning, painting and unpacking. Don't beat yourself up for not being in a place financially, spiritually, emotionally or physically where you thought you would be by now. Embrace the season of life you are in and know that you are a work in progress and that is more than ok.  

I wanna share this song below with you because it has great before and afters of people's lives. They all started out in different ways than they thought they would, but by God's grace became overcomers in their process.