Would you like to respond to circumstances and people in a more loving and godly way? That is the goal of our new book Never Ever Be the Same: A New You Starts Today. Plus, we desire to show you how you can do it at a heart level with pure motivations, not just with gritted teeth and clenched fists.
“From the heart” means we respond out of care for others and trust in God for circumstances. “Gritted teeth and clenched fists” mean we determine “I’m going to do this if it kills me.”
Which honors God more? Obviously the first.
Of course, we don’t believe that any of us will have a purely-motivated heart all the time. And it is indeed something we grow in. But it can be done.
When I first started taking care of my mother-in-law, Audrey, in our home, I was in the midst of beginning to understand my motivations and “why I do what I do.” Larry and I were beginning to practice the principles we would later put into our book. We didn’t yet know what God was doing. He was preparing us to write this book. He had lots of heart issues in me to work with as future examples. And some of my readers walked with me through those trials and challenges through my blogs.
I started out hating taking care of Audrey. When we realized she would be coming to our home, I sat on our patio watching the sun set and moaned, “Oh, no, my life is over. I don’t want to do this.” (If you want to read more about my issues with caregiving, go to the list of topics here on my blog and find “Audrey.” If you click there, a list of the blogs about that struggle will come up.)
But over the 2 1/2 years she lived with us, God did an amazing work of revealing my impure motivations because of my wounds from my past. He revealed how I believed lies and choose patterns of behavior in order to try figure out life, and for a large part it didn’t include God. In the beginning, I didn’t trust God enough to accept the blessings He desired to give through her living with us. But that didn’t stop God from pursuing me with love and a call to holiness.
In the end, God did an amazing work of transformation but I still wasn’t perfect. (And I’m still not.) But lies were corrected, motivations were purified, and God was given the glory. In our book, I use several examples of my emotional journey of caring for Audrey. And Larry does too.
If you desire to learn how to find out “why I do what I do,” you’ll find our book helpful. It really is possible to respond in more loving ways motivated by a (more) pure heart.
Here are the links for ordering. The e-book versions are already available but the print copy will be released on January 13th. Let me tell you a secret. If you pre-order the print copy, you won’t be charged until the book ships. And it’s possible that based on sales, the cost could be less expensive than currently listed, but for sure it won’t be more.