Good Morning Girls!  Yesterday I encouraged you to take a look at any evil tendencies in your life that are taking you away from the desires of your heart.  I want you all to see that a "bad habit" is often much more dangerous than we realize.  It is not just some "quirk".  It is not "just your thing".  It is not something you simply need to learn to control.  No.  It is evil, and you need to face is head on.  You need to conquer it and take control over it.
Now some of you are well aware of your tendencies.  You have already tried to conquer them.  You have already tried to put aside the evil that is tripping you up.  You have already tried.....and failed.  When you read yesterdays blog, you may have gotten a little sad, angry, or frustrated.  You may have thought to yourself "I know I do this, but I have tried to stop and I can't".  Instead of feeling encouraged, you felt defeated.
That is because for some of you, before you can turn away from the evil tendency, you need to get back up!  You see, it's hard to turn away from something if you are laying flat on your back in defeat!  It is hard to even see where you want to go if you are laying on your stomach crying and kicking over another failure!  It is hard to see the glory ahead if you are busy re playing the mistakes you made in the past!  Before you can turn away you need to get back up!
You know Girls, if you have been going to HomeMakers or if you have known me for any length of time, you will have heard it said time and again:  It is not our failures that cause our defeat.  It is our failure to get back up!  I know it's frustrating to deal with the same stuff over and over again.  I know that you are sick of it and want to pretend it's not there.  I know you want to try to kid yourself and say the evil in your life is really not that bad....especially when you compare it to other things you used to do.  But let's be honest, if you were once on fire convicted about something, was it the Holy Spirit's change of plans, or a feeling of defeat that suddenly made this evil not so bad?
Hey Girls, you know me.  I am not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here.  I am preaching to myself.  I have failed more times than most of you.  Some of you are thinking "I doubt that".  You know why you doubt that?  Because I am not still laying on my back.  You doubt I have failed as much as you because you see me moving forward.  Well Girls, I am moving forward only because I got back up!
It doesn't always seem possible to get back up.  It seems scary and frustrating.  We try to work things out while we are still laying down in defeat so that nobody sees us trying to make positive changes, and therefore will not see us get knocked down again.  Trust me....I know it stinks!  Do you think it was fun for me to tell my weight loss support group yesterday that for the last 6 weeks, as I have been trying to lead them towards healthier eating, I myself have been completely out of control?  Don't think for a second I didn't have to put down my flesh.  Put down my pride, and put on my humility.  Repent and receive forgiveness from the Lord, as well as from myself.  The devil kept telling me I would lose all credibility if I were to tell the truth.  I debated whether or not I should simply get back on track and pretend it never happened.  No one would know, it's not like we weigh in every week.
But I knew.  I knew that I had to do what I always do.  I had to set my pride aside and tell them the truth.  I let them know that I had been in the pit for the last six weeks.  I told them how I would do really well for a couple of days, and then I would be out of control for a couple of days.  I told them how I had returned to old evils I had thought were far behind and beneath me.  I told them everything.  And the response.......it actually encouraged them more!  It encouraged them to know that they are not alone.  They are not failures.  There is nothing wrong with them.  It also refueled my fire to push and encourage them (and all of you) because I know it is hard, but I know you can change.....if you would just get back up!
So Girls, enough of this "I can't","It's too hard", "I've already tried" business.  There is not one person that you admire that wouldn't be able to give you a laundry list of past mistakes.  Not just little mistakes....but biggies!  So, if you want to be the woman that God is stirring in your heart to be you need to, you guessed it......Get back up!

Micah 7:8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall I will arise: When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light for me

Love you all (now get up!)
Jen