The book we’re reading this summer for Grab & Grow is called Brave Hearts - Unlocking the Courage to Love with Abandon by Sharon Hersh.  Here are some comments from Mary Beauvais (thanks, Mary!):

The first couple of chapters of this book almost caused me to lay it down and pick up something more to my need and liking.  I’m glad I didn’t.  Chapters 5&6 are extremely helpful, filled with practical insights and applications of Biblical truth and mandates.  To mention a few comments that stood out:

 

     *  An affair of the heart is any relationship, behavior, or experience that supplants healthy relationships and replaces God as central in our lives.

 

     *  Affairs of the heart…eventually rule our lives.

 

     *  An affair of the heart makes everything better only until it makes everything worse.

 

     *  Help and hope began when I told someone the truth.  My observation is that we can tell selected ‘parts’ of our stories, and true healing doesn’t begin like it can and should, b/c on some level we’re still lingering in the shadows, playing with truth and not fully meaning business.  We may continue to excuse our behavior, shifting blame onto others instead of owning our own sin.  Repentance can’t be partial.  Forgiveness isn’t designed to be partial, but complete; ‘partial’ repentance doesn’t yield complete forgiveness.  It’s like leaving the roots of destructive weeds, only to watch them take over again.

 

     *Destructive relationships are marked by four distinctives: they are habitual, compulsive, secretive, and isolating.  This past week I was reading John 3.  Jesus aims for the heart and removes our excuses and blameshifting when He says: ‘This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.’  The moment I can’t live openly, is the moment I’m fully responsible for my sin.  If I didn’t know it was wrong, I wouldn’t need to retreat to the shadows.  The other person may contribute to the situation and problem, yes, but I can’t blame them for it.  I can get out, turn away, cry out to God for mercy, grace and deliverance.  I can find another person or two to help me stay honest.  I don’t think this means I need to announce all my sins to everyone, but it does help me understand and apply the command in James to ‘confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.’  Really coming clean delivers me from the fear of being ‘found out’ and makes me more concerned about what God sees and knows than what others may think.

 

Ah, well, I’ll stop there for now.  What hit YOU?  It’s a v. worthwhile read.  Thanks to a friend for spurring me on.