#Preapproved Sister of the Week: Megan Willome
Welcome to a new series, hosted here on the blog. Every Tuesday night, one of our preapproved sisters will share her story on letting go of a love idol. Together, we’re giving up our love idols, and we’re not taking them back. We are already approved; we have nothing to prove. In Christ, we are #preapproved. When Jennifer’s book came in the mail, I just about died when I saw that the words “Love Idol” were written in lipstick on a mirror. You see, a couple of years ago Jennifer (and Lyla Lindquist) did a bloggy birthday surprise for me. Jennifer’s part included writing, “Good morning, Gorgeous” on her mirror. In lipstick. That birthday had been a very bad day. I was so depressed I actually cleaned my house and didn’t see the lipstick wishes until late that afternoon. Actually, what I felt wasn’t as much depression as fear. My world seemed like it was about to fall apart. Less than a year later, it did. The sun did not stop its daily rising. In “Love Idol” Jennifer writes, “I have been guilty of ignoring nudges. I have been a modern-day Much-Afraid.” Oh, Jennifer, I loved Hannah Hurnard’s book “Hinds Feet on High Places,” too! And on that birthday I was feeling pure-D fear, which came from ignoring nudges of truth. All I could think was: What was happening? Why was it happening? When would it stop? More than two years later, I still don’t have those answers. But most days, I’m not as afraid. I didn’t realize during that birthday that I’d made parenting a love idol. The word “preapproved” was not in my vocabulary. Besides, how could it be wrong to want to be a good mom? That was all I was trying to do. The problem was it was everything I was trying to do. There was no room for God to work, and believe me, there was and is serious work to be done in my family. Work that I am incapable of doing. “Do we make safe places for people to be real in our faith communities?” Jennifer writes. “Do we want to see people’s ‘real’? What about when someone’s real is mad at God? When their real is ugly? When their real can’t stop crying for days, even weeks? When their real is chronic? Do we want people to be real then?” Jennifer does. She let me be a little too real for what must have seemed like a little too long. I’ve known this book was coming since 2011, and I knew I would love it because I already love Jennifer’s writing. But I didn’t think it would be the kind of book that would motivate me to write. And write. And write. I’ve written much more than you’ll see here or over at my blog. Somehow, she gave me a way to tell my story — something I thought was impossible. Do you have a preapproved sisterhood story? We are linking them up over here. Click here to find out more about the Love Idol movement. Click here to purchase the book that inspired the movement. Click here to join us on Facebook as we lay down our Love Idols and declare our #preapproved status in Christ. Click here to print the preapproved cutouts. Place these where ever your Love Idols have lurked! A Preapproved printable: to frame, to put on your refrigerator, to give to a friend. Click here to print. My gift to you, brave soul!#Preapproved Sisterhood Series
Meet Megan Willome.
I Made Parenting a Love Idol
by Megan Willome
THE LOVE IDOL MOVEMENT
THE PRINTABLES
19 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- Love Idol 5 - […] over at Jennifer’s place today (actually, yesterday). If you want to know the special place lipstick on a mirror…
- No Need to Prove Yourself - Plenty Place - […] When we rely upon His love there is no need to prove ourselves. In Jennifer’s words, we’re pre-approved. […]
I love you Megan. Just that. And . . .I’ve made parenting a love idol too, thankful for grace.
Thanks for walking this road with me, Shelly. You sisters have carried me!
your so sweet, thanks for sharing. http://b54.in/99bp
Thank you, Linda.
Megan – God revealed the fact that I too was allowing my “worry over a child (30 years old)” to consume me. He showed me when reading through Ann Voskamp’s Greatest Gifts book that my worry over my son’s addiction had taken His place in my life. I had allowed my worry to become an idol. I confessed that to him, started to let go of the worry and begin to trust God with my whole self and He has delivered a miracle in my son’s life….An absolute miracle. I am looking forward to spending more time in Jennifer’s Love Idol book to reveal the idols that remain and are standing in the way of God’s will for my life. Thank you for sharing your story. I am glad I am not alone.
I hear ‘ya, Megan…I really do. I made parenting my idol for years! Look up ‘control freak’ in the dictionary? You’ll find my picture! As I look back, I see times where I was literally ‘consumed’ with anxiety over their welfare. Writing pages and pages in my journals of the torture I felt as they made decisions I was sure were wrong. Despite all that, God took care of it all. I shudder to think of what He thought of me, struggling in my own strength to set their course. FINALLY taking my hands off the situations, when I realized I had no control. If only I’d done that in the first place. I just pray I haven’t done too much damage along the way.
I loved your writing today.
Thank you. That’ll preach, sister!
Oh Megan, I do know that “real ugly.” The worst of my story isn’t one I can freely write publicly about, but the knowing I’m not alone is a comfort. Letting go of control (or what I desperately wanted to be control) was wrenching for me. It is, however, the secret that leads to peace.
I’m so glad you feel free to share your heart in ways that are comfortable for you. None of this will be wasted. God has promised.
I’m taking you at your word, Linda! And thanks for hinting at your story here in the comments.
Oh, Megan, what God wrought from this–writing through the whole thing–to minister (to us) and do whatever God needs to in you. Thanks for your honest sharing.
Happy birthday (whenever it is…)
Happy to Help.
I love to hear that your heart has been moved to write and write! Thank you for your honesty and sharing here.
You’re welcome, Rhonda.
Freedom. It unleashes the places we’ve locked down like the Bastille, and you have let this truth storm the places that oppressed you to find liberty. I love knowing the words are free to flow, and that you are free to be the person God’s made you to be, apart from whatever approval ratings you were looking for as a parent.
Ann, would you believe I have a Bastille Day chapter for the book? How awesome that you wrote this!
Wow, how about that?? The reason I was thinking about the Bastille is because we recently toured Mount Vernon, and hanging on the wall is the key to the Bastille–a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette to George Washington, a symbol of French freedom presented to the father of American freedom.
You know what? Even if Jennifer’s book never sold a single copy (and we all KNOW that’s not true), even if no one else ever read it, the fact that you read it and your own writing was released? That’s enough. Right there. I am THRILLED to read this and though I know something of your painful journey, I am also thrilled to see how it is being redeemed, little by little, day by day. Thank you, Jennifer, for loving this friend so well. Thank you, Megan, for sharing this here.
Yes, Diana. You do know. I wish I could publish it all.
You’re reminding me again that I am preapproved in my parenting despite all the pain and regret of my failures. Things I can’t really write publicly about–but things you know. I’m having to learn and re-learn and lean and trust that God had it all together before. That he knew the future. That He stayed with His plan. Love you, friend.