What I Wish I’d Known

ON MY HEART by Marilyn Moll

Last week I was the speaker for Cindy Rushton’s Talk-a-Latte discussion program with the ongoing theme of “What I Wish I’d Known” program. Cindy is doing a 12 week series inviting a variety of guests to speak on this subject, including yours truly. (You can join Cindy for this study at this link: http://www.talk-a-latte.com/newstudies.html -Look for JUST WISH I’D KNOWN)

When Cindy’s first told me what the topic would be, I thought, “What a great topic. This will be easy to talk about!” First I will talk about how to bake bread and why its so great, how to get organized, how to homeschool on a shoestring, what I wish I had known about child training and all the other homemaking skills I have learned over the years.

Then lots of scripture verses came into my mind that God has used to mold me, direct me, and encourage me over the years. My talk turned out to be more about my spiritual journey and what I wish I’d known spiritually. Possibly many of my newsletter subscribers might be more interested in “What I wished I had known spiritually” rather than what I know about baking bread, menu planning, cooking for wellness, etc.

For example, I talked about what I wished I’d known about ungodly perfectionism. What I know now, is that allowing perfectionism and comparisons to go on in our mind is quite a prevalent and insidious, maybe even rampant problem among Christian women.

Regardless of your personal struggles, I believe it is very hard for women to see that an effective tool in the enemy’s arsenal is designed to keep our eyes off of God and on our circumstances.

This evil attack takes place in our minds and seeks to destroy us, our families, our joy, and our peace just through our thoughts.

Here is my working definition of Perfectionism:

• A sense of drivenness
• Continued feelings of not being good enough.
• Deep underlying need to control one’s life.
• Excessive striving after reward and recognition.
• Perpetual jealousy of others and a making of comparisons. Again, it is the idea that so and so has more money, better husband, nicer house, higher achieving kids, gorgeous clothes, great figure, she’s a great cook and on and on it goes.
• It robs our peace, It can put us into a depression.

The thoughts go through our mind over and over, accusing us and discouraging us. These thoughts can literally make us sick. Click here if you are interested in reading the text of my presentation, What I Wish I’d Known, or listening to a complimentary recording of the presentation with follow-up discussion.

In addition, Cindy has generously offered to share her Mommy Care Package Just for Mom, a complimentary collection of six talks by Cindy designed to pamper and encourage moms. Great listening for your Ipods and MP3 players!