MSM - Week Two

Before I begin sharing my answers to the discussion questions that spoke loudest to me, I would like to confess something.  Other than being extremely tired from a great, but wildly busy weekend, I had to postpone my post due to a SERIOUSLY FIERCE battle with my own "Twanda"!!  She reared her ugly head along about Sunday afternoon, and the inward struggle went on through the night, and into Monday morning.  So, if my answers to the questions are a little too raw, I deeply apologize.  But maybe, just maybe, God can use my candid heart to speak to yours...  That's my sincere prayer, anyway...

Questions for Discussion/Reflection

#1.  What does your Flesh Woman look like most often?  A tattoo-and-leather biker chick?  A well-dressed church lady?  Or something else?? Has anyone ever seen 102 Dalmatians?  It begins with Cruella (changed to "Ella") Deville having been released from the penitentiary  a "new woman".  In her rehabilitated state, her hair is perfectly coiffed and she dons a perfectly mild and demure clothing ensemble.  All is calm... all is bright...  But when the bells of Big Ben chime, and the effects of her Pavlovian treatment wears off... buttons pop... fingernails grow into claws and her hair begins, one lock at a time, to take on a wild and gnarly appearance, not unlike that of someone who has been struck by lightening.  Well... that's me.  Perfectly calm and serene one minute, but when the right bell "dings" my "Twanda" (aka: flesh woman) rips out of her cage, tears her clothes and flexes her muscles like the Incredible Hulk!  It's shocking, really.  And much like Joanna Weaver, my beast is usually saved for those I know will still love me when she's gone.  But sometimes, under the right circumstances, other less-understanding individuals become victim of her wrath.  That is when I truly feel like Dr. Jekyl, frantically racing to find a cure for Mr. Hyde.

#4.  Consider the "good dog/bad dog" story on page 35.  How do you feed the good dog in your life?  How can you weaken the influence of the bad dog?

"When John Michael and Jessica were small, I used an analogy I'd heard to try to explain this dilemma that even little children feel.  'It's like you have a good dog and a bad dog inside you,' I explained one night as I tucked them into bed after a particularly difficult day.  'The good dog belongs to Jesus and the bad dog belongs to the devil.  They fight and fight.  And they'll keep on fighting until you decide which one you want to win. If you feed the good dog, the good dog will win.  But if you feed the bad dog, the bad dog will win.

I try to feed my "good dog" by reading my Bible and praying daily.  I say I "try" because I have to admit, there are weeks that the poor thing goes on a starvation diet.  Though I realize that daily quiet time with the Lord is HUGE in guarding my heart and renewing my mind, I often fail in this area.  I also try to surround myself with positive influences.  Outside of the leadership of my godly husband, and the counsel of my ever-wise Mama, I have a few dear friends who I go to for encouragement and accountability.  They help me keep my "bad dog" in check, and when she gets out of her cage, they are always there to ride around the neighborhood with me, calling her name, until she is back on her leash and safely tucked away.  Not to mention, these dear girls help me attend to wounds (mostly self inflicted, but not always) that Twanda may have caused, and right the necessary wrongs.

#8.  What spoke most to you in this chapter?  I think the "Conviction vs. Condemnation" sidebar on page 37, spoke loudest to me.  So very often I wallow in my mess, rather than asking forgiveness of my sins, and moving on.  I allow the enemy to come in and talk me into beating myself up for days regarding my bad behavior.  I love the way Joanna Weaver worded her sentiments about this on page 26.

"You see, I've come to realize that Satan is not nearly as disappointed at losing me from his kingdom as he is determined to keep me from being effective in God's kingdom... Our enemy wants to keep us so consumed with our own inadequacies that we never get around to appropriating the love and transforming power God has made available to us through His Son".

But as she says further on in this chapter, "I have to get so sick and tired of the spiritual tug of wars and playground games that I finally pray, 'Lord I want to be on Your side... I choose You.'" 

That is truly the prayer of my heart right this very moment.  Like Eustace in C.S. Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I desperately long for my King to rid me of my dragonish thoughts, and undress me of my rough, tough, unsightly scales.  May my response to the Lion of Judah, be like that of Eustace to Aslan.  Rather than trying to "fix myself" and "make things better" (which never works, anyway), I simply need to kneel at His feet, and allow him to peel the layers away.

The very first tear was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart.  And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I have ever felt.  The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peeled off... Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off---just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt---and there it was lying in the grass: only ever so much thicker and darker and more knobbly looking than the others had been.

Dear Jesus, I need a Holy Makeover, and no matter how bad it may hurt to peel away the thick, dark, and knobbly layers, I need you to start, now!!

Now it's your turn.  What did you think about this chapter?  Be sure to sign Mr. Linky below to participate in this discussion.  And remember, anyone can start at anytime.  Just click here for instructions.  Have a great week everybody!!

HOMEWORK: "Week Three", page 244