Grace for the Good Girl Chapter 10

This week, I'll be focusing on only one chapter. It's the last chapter of part one, and it is extremely deep, as well as long.



Chapter 10: Hide And Seek game over

As with all the posts about this book the color scheme is:

• Quotes from the Book


• My add-ons


• My Story

"God has made everything beautiful in it's time." I have to begin to believe this. I'm the first to tell someone something similar when their in the face of trials, but I haven't quite grasped what this looks like in my life. Although I always see the beauty that are found from trials after I am through them.

From the Beginning...

Emily begins to tell the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. She brilliantly incorporates our good girl mentalities and identifies those same characteristics in Eve...after the fall.

"Love was not afraid to give us a choice even though he knew what would happen." That in and of itself is absolutely mind blowing.

I love this concept, it's still true today..."Satan lies. The woman doubts God in her soul, believes the lie of Satan, and chooses the fruit."

Two Things (That Satan did, which lead to the fall)

"First, he convinced Eve she had to do something in order to be something..."

Emily lists several lies that many of us believe. Here are the two I identified with the most: "If you serve in the church, then you will be acceptable. If you keep your house clean, then you will be a good wife." Take note, I am possibly the worst housekeeper ever. Not that my house should be on Hoarders or anything. I just have something my dad calls "flat surface disease." Meaning if there's a flat surface (besides and sometimes including the floor) it's covered with something.

"The second thing that...Satan told the woman, "You will be like God" Although the man and woman did not realize that because they were created by God, "they already were like God."

"They didn't just want to be like God, bearing his image [they already had that]. They wanted to be God, self-sufficient and independent." Isn't that what we still strive for?

The First Hiding

Emily explains that shortly, probably even minutes, after Adam and Eve ate the fruit, the first mask was made. This one of fig leaves. She also explains that this was done because...

"They chose...to depend on something other than God to get their needs met."

"I hide behind my positive emotions rather than let you see my reality." Because many times this feels like the best alternative for me. I've let people see the reality and they've gone running the other way. I've been hurt too often, so it takes WAYYYYY longer than it should for me to trust someone enough to let them see my ugly. I do this without realizing that..."I have to come out of hiding in order to be found. To be healed. To be whole."

I have to share this excerpt...because if you're a good girl too, this could change your perspective on the masks we wear:

"The Spirit and the flesh are in opposition. It doesn't matter if your flesh looks bad or good; it opposes the Spirit within you, and this struggle and rob us from living out of our true, Jesus-made identity. Know this begs the question: How could this good girl possibly expect to please God by depending on her masks, or her flesh, if the flesh opposes the Spirit of God?" Definitely some meat to chew on there...

The First Finding

"They [Adam and Eve] needed more than a place to hide; they needed forgiveness and they needed life. God lovingly, graciously, and miraculously provided both." Isn't this what I need day in and day out too, but fail to realize it? But God doesn't just stop there. "He took away the hiding place they crafted for themselves and made for them a new one on his terms. Mercy protects. Grace provides." I can't think of a better protection and provision plan. Can you?

The Hiding Place of Shame

"Guilt is used by God to show us our need for him." I have NEVER thought about it this way.

"Guilt is a good thing, a God-reminder when things aren't right and an opportunity to change them. Shame is what happens when we let guilt fester and sink deeper and don't deal with it." In this case, the difference of shame and guilt, ignorance isn't bliss, this knowledge is.

"...instead of taking our inabilities, weaknesses, and shortcomings to God, we choose to try to deal with sin ourselves and hide behind try-hard masks." How often do I try to "fix" the problem areas in my life rather than surrendering? Why do I do this? Oh, that's right because it's painful and I don't want to feel the pain. Little do I realize I have to go through the pain to get to the beautiful.

The Hiding Place of Grace

Emily explains that the cross actually has 2 sides. The side on which Christ died which bears our blood, shame and sin. What we often don't realize (or aren't taught) is that the other side shows us the way to life.

"The first side is where most good girls live. We know about the forgiveness, about the sin and the blood and the death of Christ. But we aren't as familiar with the body side. So we live on the forgiveness side and try hard to get the life." Yep...definitely me.

I love love love this simple sentence. "We have been placed into safety." Yet, I often don't live like I have been. I am still scared to take the next step forward in something hard because it's not safe, but "God has provided a better way and because of that, there is a new way to live."

And that way is to follow Christ. Not only into his death, but also into his life. Yet we so often dwell on his death because that's where he took our sins and made us clean and we fail to realize that he also rose again to new life and that's really where we should be dwelling. Learning how to live after we died to our sins...because after all, Christ lives now and he also died for my sins.

Learning from a River

"Gods desire is that we live in freedom and drink from the wide, deep, powerful River of Life. The masks we hide behind keep us from experiencing the fullness of life the way we were meant to live it."

So as we go about this week, will we choose to allow God to find us and believe in the new life we already have? Or are we going to continue hiding and try to gain the life that Satan wants to fool us into believing we have to earn it?