Sunday's Best: Week 2

Letting Go....

"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14

Letting go of my past by far has been one of the hardest things that I have had to learn how to do in this process of transformation.  Letting go of bad habits, letting go of people that no longer serve their purpose in my life, letting go of how I think about things. old hurts from past situations, and I could go on.  However, the first choice that I made was to make the decision that I wanted to change.  Many things have changed in my life over the course of the past 7 years and somethings are still a work in progress.

When God put this topic of letting go in my heart this week in prayer to share on the blog I sensed that there was a deeper issue that he wanted to address in me.  As I was waking up Tuesday morning I heard the still small voice of the holy spirit say "don't let doubt slow your progress."  See fear and doubt have been the biggest peace and progress robbers of my life.  I get a rhythm going and then I get to a certain level in my business, with my weight loss goals, or whatever and I begin to doubt myself or I begin to fear that I won't be able to handle the success so I start self-sabotaging.  Making excuses, talking myself out of things, allowing myself to become distracted or my favorite weapon of self-destruction procrastination as a result of doubting my ability to get the job done.

This week alone I received multiple new sewing job opportunities but I was feeling run down because of a cold. I am the biggest baby when I get a cold.  I prefer to lock down, douse myself with water, tylenol and sleep it out.  However, doors were opening and I couldn't afford to do it that way.  So I made the decision to keep myself focused despite how I felt physically.  Can I tell you that the enemy of my soul and my old self were at war with the God in me.  Bad habits wanted to take over, Negative thoughts bombarded my mind and wanted to take over.  My emotions wanted to kick into autopilot and begin to navigate this ship but I had stay focused on what the word of God says for my life and stretch myself with the fruit of self-discipline in order to get things done.

That is what Paul was talking about in this scripture.  He said its going to be a press in order to get to the goal of winning the prize for which God called him "heavenward in Christ Jesus"  Living a transformed life in Christ isn't a cake walk.

With that said..... There have been some nuggets of knowledge and wisdom that I have gleaned as a result of all this pressing that I have been doing that I wanted to share.

10 Steps to Letting Go

1) Letting go is a process that happens over time.

2) Letting go requires that you allow yourself to be vulnerable.

3) Letting go requires that you not be afraid to confront what you have been holding on to.

4) Letting go requires that you acknowledge and receive that God's love is more powerful than 
the hurt of your past.

5) Letting go requires a willingness to forgive. Both yourself and others.

6) Letting go requires that you let go of old habits that no longer serve their purpose in your life.

7) Everyday offers new opportunities to let go.

8) Letting go starts by embracing your purpose and true identity in Christ.

9)) Expect a confrontation with your past to come in the process of embracing your future.

10) You have to strive in order to stride.

Week 2: Wardrobe Challenge

Ironically enough this weeks wardrobe challenge was a blazer project that I started 2 years ago when I first moved back to Milwaukee after living in Baltimore but didn't finish and just couldn't part with it even though it was a little bit big on me now.  The khaki green and black fabric was something I had in my stash dating back almost 10 years ago when I first started sewing. The rest of the fabric is a combination of old denim jeans that I outgrew after losing the weight and the plaid on the lapel is vintage fabric that I recently purchased specifically to use on this project.  

Which leads me to my final point about letting go.  Sometimes there are things or people from your past that no matter how much you would like to be rid of it you can't. Instead, God offers us an exchange.  He asks us to give him the hurt and the pain and in exchange he heals us and extends his  grace so that we can apply the wisdom and knowledge from the past experience in order to create a completely new situation or relationship with those that hurt us. While this is hard it is a true act of freedom.  

I want to give a special thanks to my friend and sewing student Johanna Duckworth of Creative Images for styling my outfit and taking my photos for this post.  In addition to my jacket the grey knit skirt and pink crochet rope scarf were also made by me.