Penned Without Ink by Sarah Lynn Phillips

Author:Sarah Lynn Phillips
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Straight Street Books
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Growing In Grace

I like the analogy of a child giving a valentine to her parent. Her token of love isn’t perfect. Coloring overflows the lines, letters find themselves backward, words are misspelled. But her father doesn’t chide her. Instead, he delights in her efforts to express love to him. Each year, as she matures, her father’s smile of approval shows how much he treasures every stage of growth.

God’s a little like that. My attempts to show love for Him and to please Him often appear out of line, backward. These efforts don’t spell C-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n very well. Many times I misread a situation or my good intentions seem to backfire. But He treasures me as His child and xssees past the mistakes and into my heart. He understands and values each stage of growth. Often, He gently takes me by the hand and shows me a more excellent way through His Word. He prompts me to grow in grace and points me back to the basics: to love God and love my neighbor.

After traveling fifty-some years on the pathway of life, I’ll probably always lean to the conventional side. It’s who I am. I value being comfortable with who He made me to be and allowing others the freedom to be who they are. Each person has a unique story worthy of my respect.

As society continues to shift, this is my aspiration: to honor my heritage and, at the same time, to dance with the inevitable changes ahead. I want the Master Writer to guide the pencil and write my life story as I seek “to do your will, O my God.”

This part of my backstory represents a significant paradigm shift from trying so hard to please God to a deeper understanding of His work in my life. But God, who had lovingly begun His work in me, desired to bring me farther ... to draw me closer ... to increase my trust in Him. Less than three years from the time God brought Jerry Bridges’ book to my attention, the car crash and its repercussions acted as a catalyst to open my eyes wider to the implications of my compliant “good-girl approach” to life.

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