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| Hey folks, I’m heading to Phoenix today to hang out with the fabulous Lindsay Harrel. Yay! Since I’ll be busy having loads of fun, I won’t be posting on Monday. Just FYI. 🙂 Photo credit: stock.xchng |
“I want to get better at…”
Found myself writing these words in a comment under a friend’s blog post recently….and it hit me how often in a week, or like, day, I say stuff like that. It’s the “achiever” side of my personality, always looking for the next goal.
Which isn’t always a bad thing. I’m rewriting my second book right now, for instance, and I truly want it to be better than the first. I hope to be an author who gets better with each story.
And yet, the drive for “better” can leave me too often dissatisfied and discontent…with myself. That’s a frustrating place to be.
Which is why I’m so thankful for the whisper of truth I heard earlier this week. I was having one of those dissatisfied moments, frustrated with myself and my distance from “better” in one area of my life. I found myself praying the same old prayer, telling God I truly want to get better at…when I heard this:
Melissa, it’s not about your better. It’s about My best.
Okay, I didn’t hear-hear it. No audible voice. But I’m telling you, the truth was just there…waiting for me to pick it up. To get over me and my own efforts and remember my better can never compare to God’s best…
…His all-covering grace.
…His ridiculously awesome timing.
…His faithfulness to finish what he started in me, even if to me the finish line feels continents away.
Which makes me think, yeah, do I really want to be so focused on my idea of “better,” that I miss out on the “best” God has for me? I think not.
How about you? What does “His best” mean to you? Are there times when, in your efforts to “get better,” you’re reminded to depend on God instead of yourself?
Comments 22
So true. It’s easy to become dissatisfied with my life when I let that kind of thinking start taking over.
Exactly!
Yep, all the time. He breaks me down again and again. Only to build me up in Him.
I love that God never gives up on the building us up part!
“Melissa, it’s not about your better. It’s about My best.”
Oh I love it and so true! When I try to get better on my own, I make tragic messes. And He lets me. So He can teach me, His best. His strength. His glory. 🙂
I love that I’m not the only messy one…and that God is totally in the business of pulling me out of messes. 🙂
Melissa, when I take my eyes off of Him for even a moment, that’s when my thinking gets distorted. He gently corrects and brings me back around to where I need to be–though sometimes, I’m allowed to bungle it first. “Best” lessons I’ve learned this way though.
It’s funny, several commenters have all said the same thing…that God often allows us to mess things up first. 🙂 I think it allows us to appreciate his “best” all the more.
I love the truth and vulnerability of your words, Melissa! Our best is such a paltry offering when done in our own strength. When we enlist HIS strength and rely on His leading, the results just blow our wigs right off! Woot!
“Blow our wigs right off.” I love that!! 🙂
My better=1 book. His best=3 books. My finite mind cannot wrap around His best. It just can’t.
Have fun with Lindsay!!
Yaaaay for three books. So, so impatient. I hope you’ll be a blog guest next year when your book comes out, Pat. 🙂
And yes, I had soooo much fun with Linz. Such good times. I’m sitting in the airport now bemoaning the end of the weekend. 🙂
Yes, have fun, and glimpse early spring.
I ran into big-time trouble 28 years ago when my heart rate dropped to 21 and then 16. I prayed hard & friends did too but it didn’t change things. Mercifully God arranged for me to be flown by charter jet from our small town to a major city where I received the 1st of 5 so far dual pace makers. He gave my life back to me, when people in 3rd-world-countries would not have had that option. I count my life dear every day and ask Him how I’m to use it.
Oh man, I remember you talking about that experience one year at ACFW, Dee. I’m SO happy that you came out of it ALIVE and passionate about your life. You’ve had some amazing experiences, that’s for sure.
Loved this post, Melissa! Really resonated – maybe because I’m a bit of an “achiever” myself. 🙂
We achiever types have to stick together. Hehehe…
I stay in this state a lot of the time, and sometimes God has to tap me on the shoulder and remind me to trust Him. It’s not always easy, but it always needful to lean on His strength.
Everything always comes back to trust, doesn’t it?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked God to help me get better – I often wonder if we’re brought to that same place time and time again so we can finally understand that our “better” will never measure up to His best. Sometimes it takes years to get there.
Yup, I think you’re right, Gabe…that God lets us end up in places where we have to once again learn the lesson that our idea of better just doesn’t match up to his best.
So, all this weekend, each time Linz and I started getting sad at how quickly it was flying by, we reminded ourselves of June. Ahh, I’m so excited to hang out. Hope you have a fabulous time at DT. I’m going to try not to wallow about the fact that I won’t be there with you guys. 🙂
Ok…that’s sticking with me:) Yes! I want His best!! But so often reach for “my better” too.
Hope you have fun this weekend!!!
I think you’ve experienced a little of his best lately, haven’t you, Susan? Yay for being agented!!!