Discovering yourself

[IFB No More]

How have you guys discovered your self after exiting from IFBism? I'm sure many of you have discovered a lot of it having your personality repressed by fundamentalism.

[Darrell]

Nah, I've pretty much always been awesome.

[Faith]

I'm a hot chick now.

[IFB No More]

I'm starting to happen.

[exIFB]

I discovered that I don't need to try and be a preacher or missionary or church planter in order to be accepted by God. I can be the best _________ I can be and be in God's will. I have been reading "The Way of Victory" by JH McConkey. I can't find it online, so I will paraphrase a story from it.

He tells of a young man who was in love with a girl and they were planning to get married. He felt led to go to the mission field and decided to tell his soon to be father in law about it. The father in law was none too happy and said that his daughter would not be married to any missionary while he was overseas (this is an old book by the way). The young man is overcome with worry and anxiety because he will lose the woman of his dreams while he follows the will of God. So, he prays about it and decides to follow his heart, not what he thinks he should do for God. He marries the woman, becomes a baker and becomes a witness to his entire town. I can't remember the name of the man, but basically, the story was quite a good illustration. He then followed it with this

Consecration to God is this - taking a blank piece of paper, signing it and saying, God, fill out the rest. Instead of trying to think of what we can do for God, we can just trust God to live it through us as He wills and as He knows our place in the body.

[Tony Mel]

Where do I begin? When I began seeing things like they were, I realized that Fundy leaders use self-annihilation theology in order to keep the average churchgoer under the system and promote themselves. Then, I discovered something about myself. I have a good ability to detach outside messages from myself. I no longer feel bound to the obligations that a "MOG" imposes through the message, because I can evaluate his rhetoric on the spot, refute his theology through Bible and logic, take the good and leave the bad.

[Jenn]

I discovered I'm not a Republican.

[Lizzy F.]

Quote:After all the dust settled and I evaluated who I really was, I DID, funnily enough, discover that I am truly a domestic person. I adore cooking, am somewhat of a neat freak and like a clean home. But, I don't do it because I should, I do it because its just who I am.

That's me too!! (minus washing dishes. I still hate doing that and I really don't care if they pile up in the sink. )

I also discovered that there's a lot of gray areas to my personality. Before, I tried to put myself in a "femininity" box. Now that I've left fundy-dom, a very "masculine" personality is coming out.

[Tony Mel]

(02-14-2011 12:00 AM)Jenn Wrote:  I discovered I'm not a Republican.

[Scorpio]

(02-13-2011 09:49 PM)Faith Wrote:  I'm a hot chick now.

That is funny (in a good way)

I thank you for the coffee on my keyboard