Recap....

Get excited Blair...I'm back to my weekly recaps! :)

Last night at small group we started discussing Max Lucado's new book Fearless. Chapter one was all about Fear. Understanding it. Identifying it. Fixing it. It was so insightful and encouraging to sit with these Godly gals & just encourage & challenge each other with our fears. One thing we focused on was the root of our that fear. Where does it come from, why do we have it. After all there is something in our hearts is causing us to fear that rejection, disappointment, people, perfectionism....I'll stop there my list could go on and on.

I don't know.....maybe it's because if I let that person down I'm afraid they'll stop loving me. Or if I let the people in my life see me mess up then *gasp* they will figure out that I'm not perfect. If I love that person big and with all that is in me maybe I won't get that in return. (then why do we even love at all) Or if I let them see the "real me" they will see the imperfections, the cracks, the bumps and bruises (that have made me me) & stop loving me. These are just a few of the things we discussed last night.

One thing that really struck a chord with me was when we were talking about the fear of love. I don't know about you but I know sometimes I can find myself struggling with loving myself the way I love others. It's so easy to sit in front of a mirror and pick myself apart. But then Katherine shared a conversation she had the other day that sounded something like this. As Christ followers we are commanded to love our neighbor as yourself....it is the greatest commandment after all. If you can't love yourself for who Christ has created you to be then it's going to be awfully hard to love your neighbor unconditionally. When I fall short and fail to love me for who Christ has created me to be then that hinders me in loving others. I so do not want to be there. I want to love people big. With a love that is contagious and just causes people to smile! I do. I so desire to show the love of Christ to everyone I cross paths with. Does this happen all the time? Heavens no! But I'm not going to let the excuse "it's not easy" be a crutch or an option. So I challenge you today to love without fear and without the expectation of getting anything in return.