Hey guys! Today is another great Monday. Lol Mondays can be rough sometimes, for sure. But its always so refreshing to just take a step back and ask the Holy Spirit to remind me to keep all of these things in view of eternity, so that I don't get bogged down and frustrated and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things I write on my to-do list. Taking that step back, to fall into the Father's arms, and consciously choose to place that relationship with Him first, is the only way I've ever found (and I've looked for a lot of options in the past ;)) to actually enjoy life, and the progress along journey that He's given me. So, even if I don't get everything checked off today (or half of the things checked off), it's okay, and I can fall asleep peacefully tonight, and sleep well, because that's not where my worth comes from. I'm not measuring myself, my worth, or my success, off of my own accomplishments. No, no. Been there, done that, it's not cool. Rather, God's been teaching me how I can stop myself whenever I hear the faintest whisper of a lie from the enemy - A whisper that tempts me to be stressed out, or that tells me that I'm no good because, "look at all you didn't accomplish today" - and how I can rebuke it, and replace it with truth right off the bat. I feel like I've mentioned this a lot on TBQJ lately, but it's something God's teaching me about, so whatever :P - That guarding your heart is so important. And what I'm talking about here, is a big part of guarding our hearts. The devil knows that one of the quickest ways to get us emotionally drunk and vulnerable, is to mess up how we see our identity, and our worth to God. As Americans, especially, one of the quickest routes to our identity for him, is through what we do. That's one of the reasons why it's vital to ask and seek God for an understanding, about where our identities come from; Both the general factors (i.e. we're all His children, He loves us totally unconditionally, He's made us all with a specific and important purpose, etc.), and also the more individual and unique factors (all of the wonderful elements that He instilled in you, that make you the awesome person that you are). When our identities are correctly focused in on, and centered around, who we are, instead of what we do (our day-to-day fleshly performance, which will never be sustainably perfect because we're human), we can move past being worried about our own self-image, and begin being enabled to focus on our God, His Kingdom, and our relationship with Him. So that's pretty cool. BUT ANYWAYS, I know that wasn't really an intro to what we're going to be talking about (sorry-not-sorry :P), so here's a little introduction for you... Today we're going to be talking about "Overcoming Roadblocks", and this is an extremely vital part of quizzing, and life in general. However, that being said, I feel like it's not really discussed much, or taught, in the Christian circle or elsewhere. So, today, I'll be sharing with you my findings from my personal, long and drawn-out experience, of making tons and tons of mistakes, and then learning how I can do this life thing - How I can run as fast as I can, and trip as little as possible ;). This is gonna be fun. Let's get into it!! Obviously, we all have problems of some magnitude or another, when it comes to Teen Bible Quizzing, right? If we didn't, then everyone would easily be the number one quizzer at every event - but not everyone is - There is generally only one first place individual. What's the biggest "problem" that we hear about in quizzing? If you don't know, you either haven't been paying very much attention, or you're just surrounded by perfect quizzers ;). It's the old, tried and true, "not studying enough", of course! But, after considering this for a moment, when I was thinking about what I wanted to write about, earlier this week, that's actually not accurate, and I'll tell you why... "Not studying enough" isn't a problem, it's the fruit, the result, OF a problem. See? There are a lot of different possible roots that could produce "not studying enough", and it's not the same for everyone, because everyone's different, and they have different lives. Here are a few root problems, that I feel are most common among quizzers:
So you see, these are all a little similar, but they all present a different obstacle to overcome - Often, we have to use slightly different tactics, in order to overcome them. And I'm not going to go through each of these, and give you a formula for doing that for each one. You'll be more effective, and more satisfied at the end of the day, if you seek God's heart and wisdom on your problem, and learn in your heart how to execute the solution. But, what I am going to be talking about, in the sequel of this post (probably next week, I'm thinking), is a process that the military uses, and that has a lot of Biblical truth to it: Identify, Isolate, Eliminate. And we'll be going in to each of those in detail and explanation next time. I'm super excited for it! But for today, I want you to think about what we've talked about here... You might be having trouble with something, you may have already identified what's holding you back, or hindering you from making progress. But take some time and ask God if that thing is actually the problem, or just the result of another problem. I mentioned at the beginning of this post, about the importance of guarding our hearts. In Proverbs, it says that everything in life is affected by the condition of them. That's why, more often than not, that most of our problems are just the result of something going on in our hearts, even if we might not realize it yet. For me, with the problem of perfectionism and frustration and stress, was just the result of being self-centered, having a messed up idea of my identity, and not knowing my God enough, so that I could trust Him with who I was and what I did. I didn't have relationship with Him, so I couldn't bring myself to trust Him with my minutes, my hours, because that would mean surrendering to Him everything that I thought gave me worth and value. And guys, learning what my identity is in Christ, from Christ, has changed my life on all levels. Like I said earlier, what I did/didn't do, defined who I was, and how much I was worth. That's just not true, and it's a terribly trap of the enemy, because when our focus is on ourselves, and trying to improve our own worth, we can't see Jesus almost at all. And looking to Him, is the only way we can draw on His strength, and joy, and know how much He deeply, deeply loves and cares for us. That's an amazing break through that I pray each and every one of you receives from God, if you haven't yet, because speaking from my own journey through this, it will totally change your life. Well, with that, dear and precious people, I hope that you have an awesome, awesome week this week, and that you're just filled with a fresh and new understanding and revelation of how loved you are by the Father, and how important you are to Him, because He would (and did) give up anything and everything, just for you.
God wouldn't do that just for some old worthless thing, would He? NO! You are a worthy, qualified, and quality creation and possession of God, and having a relationship with you, is the most important thing to Him, above everything else. Man, our God is so good, isn't He?? I love you guys so so so much, and I'll see you THIS SUNDAY, for another awesome Newsletter! Until then, keep quizzing and living victoriously!! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory
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Trending Posts:Author:Mallory is a graduated Teen Bible Quizzer originally from the Southern region, moved to the Northwest, coaching quizzing over the book of Matthew. Check out our
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