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Friday, December 9, 2011

The Devastating Failure of Performance Based Acceptance - A Real Life Story


    The real life story you are about to read is so full of the complete gospel that we share, I could not say it better myself.  I think you will actually want to pass this on to many of your family and friends.  
   "I've been saved for over 30 years (most of my life), but after discovering my identity in Christ through Grace Life's counseling and other ministries, I can say that it truly feels like I've been born again. My initial foundation in God was strong but the list of rules and religious duties deemed necessary to please God, far outweighed any explanation of my freedom in Christ. This was only compounded by the demands in my childhood home that seemed to tell me that good was not good enough and my best should have been better. I became addicted to the idol of high performance (to the point of being physically nauseous almost every day) and would do almost anything to avoid the pain of failure and experience the high of success. This need to succeed impacted me as a Christian, a wife, mom, and teacher. I believed that it was my primary means of gaining the love, approval, security, and sense of value for which I longed. I enjoyed many successes, while achieving great honors in high school, college, and in my teaching career."
   "No matter what struggles I faced, I took the attitude that I would pull myself up by the bootstraps and make things happen. After trying to hold the pieces of my life together, it all came crashing down when I faced a seemingly insurmountable personal crisis of devastation. I remember lying on my closet floor one day, and crying out, "I give up! I have no more to give!" I believe at that moment God lovingly said, 'Finally!'"
   "Not long afterwards, a short-term counselor recommended that I contact Grace Life for extended Christian counseling. So, I began one-on-one counseling and I can truly say that I will NEVER be the same. Before finishing my counseling, I was also blessed to participate in the Grace Life Conference and the Advanced Discipleship course, each having been uniquely instrumental in deepening my understanding of God's grace. What I have received has not merely been an experience but an encounter with God. Where fifteen years of counseling had miserably failed by trying to build my self-esteemGod spoke through the counselors and teachers at Grace Life to bring me to the end of my self-sufficiency and caused me to give up, so that He could show me that He had been enough all along---He is my peace, my joy, my comfort, my counselor, my husband, my life, my All... And even more, my ALL in ALL (meaning in every circumstance). He has changed my view of Him, myself, and others. (Joanne Saulsbury)

  
Until next time remember, He loves us!


Mark Maulding
President and Founder
Grace Life International
www.GraceLifeInternational.com

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