The Rise & Fall of a "Goodie-2-Shoes"

Growing up I was a "Goodie-2-Shoes"....I tried to be very, very GOOD....and I was good at it!  I got good grades and I did good deeds.  I never got into trouble and always tried to do the right thing.  BORING!!!  But worse than that....I was doing it all for the WRONG reasons!  I was trying to please man (my parents and my peers)!  Boy--did I put a lot of pressure on myself!  I tried so hard to be PERFECT. 

Where did all this desire to be perfect start?  I think it began when I started to see that the only time I seemed to be noticed or ACCEPTED was when I did something perfect.  That's the only time I felt APPROVED and/or loved. 

Religious people EXPECT you to be perfect...but righteous people (those that have a true relationship with Jesus) know you can't be perfect.  I was "one of those" religious types until I fell at Jesus' feet and He lifted me up!   I fell off my high tower of PRIDE and shattered into a million pieces....just like "Humpty Dumpty"... when I knew I couldn't hold it together anymore.  It was there--in my brokenness--that I felt His love.  I had to come to the end of my ways to enter His Way.  I only knew "conditional love," but when I came face-to-face with Him, I came to know "uncondtional love."  He loved me "just as I was."

It says in the Bible that "a righteous man falls 7 times, but rises again" and that "we all stumble in many ways."  It wasn't until I fell over my own feet, wearing shoes that I couldn't fill, that He lifted me up.  Yes--I can truly say.....

                               Love lifted me!!!!