When Life Gets Unfolded

When I was in high school, I spent one summer working at the clothing store ‘Express’. As it was considered the new, more trendy sister store of ‘The Limited’, I felt like I had scored big time and I kept a running list of all of the things I was going to buy with my employee discount.

Anyone who has worked in retail clothing will tell you that it all sounds like fun and games until you find yourself elbow deep in boxes of clothing all waiting to be ironed and properly displayed and dealing with grumpy customers while you attempt to figure out how to work the register.

Probably the most essential tool for the clothing retail employee is the folding board. It looks like a clipboard but without the ‘clip’ part and is used to get those shirts looking like folded little soldiers all in a row on the display shelves.

I LOVED this tool! It spoke right to my neat-freak heart and I got such a sense of satisfaction out of using it to get the perfect fold.

And then, the inevitable would happen. Some customer would come along and dig through those perfectly folded shirts to find the size they needed. The nerve!

There they would be, all rumpled and wrinkled and a shell of their former, perfectly folded selves.

I don’t know about you but throughout my life, when I would hear the word ‘unfolded’, it always conjured up images of a soft and flowy process. You hear people reference the ‘unfolding’ of a story and you envision something almost magical. Holding your breath as each new chapter reveals itself.

But, the reality is, the process of unfolding something isn’t quite so magical. Peeling back layer after layer to reveal the truth.

It’s rumpled…it’s wrinkled…it’s messy….it’s anything but perfect.

For most of my life, I tried very hard to stay ‘folded’. I wanted my life to look like those crisp shirts all neat and tidy on the display shelves.

But, God had other plans for me.

My life became unfolded.

And as each layer was peeled away, what was revealed was startling.

I was a rumpled, wrinkled, imperfect mess. 

Maybe you can relate. Maybe your life is becoming ‘unfolded’ and all you can see is the wrinkled up shell of what used to be.

I’m here to tell you today that you aren’t alone.

In fact, I’m teaming up with 19 other women who will tell you that you aren’t alone.

This January join 20 women for an 8 week study all about finding your true identity in Christ.  Each week you will hear unfolding stories from the women in this study.  We will be sharing truths about who the Lord says we are and our personal journeys to accepting those truths.

We will also have fun creative videos that follow the study where the women will share one of their gifts. Think guitar playing, bread making, painting, entertaining and more.  You know I can’t have a course without sharing how the Lord uses our creativity! My hope is that the study will give you fresh eyes for the Lord and yourself.  When we know who we are in Christ it changes everything and opens our paths and gifts in incredible new ways.
Some of us are carrying around “truths” about ourselves that are flat out lies and it time to lay them down

This study will be open and honest, real, Bible based and a bit of creativity too.  We hope you will join us January 6, 2015 for this free online study!

Directions to register:
To join this free study you just need to be registered at jeanneoliver.ning.com (registering is free).

Once you are on the site you will find this study, free videos (business and art), my Creativity Takes Courage series and new online courses along the left hand side of the page.

You will find all of our courses/videos under the COURSES heading.

To register for Becoming | The Unfolding of You

1) Go to COURSES along the left hand side of the page

2) Go to the bottom of the course and click “view all” to find Becoming | The Unfolding of You

4) Click on Becoming | The Unfolding of You

3) Click the +join button on the upper right hand side

4) All of the details are on the page and you are all set for the study to begin on January 6, 2015

Becoming Video Trailer

Are you ready to start seeing the beauty in living a life ‘unfolded’?

Because, where you look down and see a wrinkly, rumpled, imperfect mess, God looks down and sees that you are at EXACTLY the right place for an amazing journey to begin.

A journey that will be painful.

A journey that will leave you…

Untidy

Undone

Unfolded

 

But I can guarantee that you will not be left

Unchanged