Finding Free
I am so excited about my new book coming out in just a few weeks—Finding Free: 5 Simple Steps to a More Peaceful, Content, and Happy You. To give you an idea of what the book is about, continue reading below. This is the introduction to my book.
Introduction
If you had told me years ago that I would write a book on finding free, I would have laughed. I was the least free person I knew! My life felt out of control; I lived a frustrated life, one in which I was just existing. I didn’t wake up each day excited about the possibilities life had to offer. I didn’t know who I was or what God wanted me to do with my life. I was merely being carried along by other people’s desires and plans for my life.
The process of getting to where I am today was not by my own planning or choosing. Actually, it was quite the opposite. God turned my life completely upside down and changed everything for me. I didn’t realize it at the time because so many changes were coming at me hard and fast. But I realize now, looking back, that God was turning my life right side up. He was changing everything around me and subsequently changing me as well.
I talk to so many women who are lost, confused, frustrated, lonely, fearful, and feel like they have lost sight of who they are. That was me. If you feel like there must be a better way to live, that God has something more for you, then this book is for you.
What Finding Free Isn’t
Before I explain what finding free is, I want to start by telling you what it isn’t. Finding free is not a problem-free life. If you picked this book up with that in mind, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Jesus himself told us that this life is not going to be easy. He tells us in John 18:33 that in this world, we will experience tribulation. We could just stop there. Life is hard—end of story. Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t stop there with those hopeless words! He continues with five hope-filled words: “I have overcome the world.” He didn’t leave us to try to figure things out on our own. He promised he would never leave us nor forsake us in this world full of hardships (Hebrews 13:5).
Our life is not going to be problem-free just because we find free. My life is probably more problem-filled than it’s ever been, but here’s the key: I have incredible peace and am so content with where God has me despite the messy life around me.
So many women I talk to are not happy, not content. They are stuck in jobs they can’t stand or are at home living lives that are empty and unfulfilling. We want more, want to experience more; we crave finding what will truly make us happy and content. Yet, we are utterly clueless about how to find it or even know what it is we’re searching for.
Finding More
I felt so trapped in the life I was living for so long. I spent so many years spinning in circles, trying to find what I was missing and what I was supposed to do with my life, trying to figure out why things weren’t working out and why I wasn’t fulfilled. I knew God had more for my life, but I didn’t know how to find it.
God created us to experience an abundant life, not a mediocre, okay life. He said in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” That doesn’t sound like a boring life. It doesn’t sound stressful or empty. It sounds like what finding free looks like.
What Finding Free Is
Finding free is about discovering who God created you to be and being completely okay with that. It’s about finding what God has created you to do and chasing after it with your whole heart. It’s about learning to turn a deaf ear to critics and people who don’t want you to succeed. It’s about learning to abandon people-pleasing, about realizing that you will never please everybody.
It’s about learning to step into the life God wants you to live. It’s about leaving behind busy and pursuing peace. It’s about pushing perfectionism out of your life and accepting the messiness of your life. It’s doing more of what fills you up and less of what drains you. It’s about creating a life you love. It’s about letting go of the secret rules you have that are holding you back. It’s about finding momentum and moving forward. It’s about letting go of shame and comparison. It’s about finding total freedom. It’s about finding the love you’ve always wanted but don’t know how to have. Finding free is about all of this and more.
I have broken down finding free into five simple steps. We’ll spend several chapters on each step so we can really delve into them:
- Understand Your Personality
- Discover Your Purpose
- Create a Life You Love
- Allow God to Redirect You
- Release the Shame
Finding Free is a Journey
I’m going to warn you: finding free is a journey. You aren’t going to find it in a day, and you won’t find it a week from now. It’s going to take time. It took me years to get to where I am today. But don’t let that discourage you. There’s a secret that every traveler knows, and it’s this: there’s joy found in the journey, not just the destination.
Throughout this book, I’ll share parts of my story of finding free to help you get your journey of finding free started. After that, it will be up to you to continue your own journey. The key is not quitting until you have found your freedom. As Tony Robbins says, “The only impossible journey is the one you never take.”1
Don’t get discouraged and quit halfway through this book or halfway through your own journey. You won’t ever find free.
It may feel at times that you’re better off just staying where you are in life. There may come a time when it feels like it’s too hard to create your own version of free. Don’t believe the lie! It will be work, and it will be difficult. There will be decisions you have to make, people you have to leave behind, and things you must release from your life. However, if you stick with it, I promise you will come out on the other side living your own version of free, and you’ll be so grateful you didn’t throw in the towel.
Why I Wrote this Book
The life I am living now can simply be summed up as finding free. I spent my entire life trying to live a certain way, be a certain kind of person, and letting others dictate my life for me. Now I am content in who I am and what God has me doing.
It’s taken a lot of years, a lot of purposeful decisions. Our family has made a lot of changes over the years. We’ve made sacrifices to live the life we are living now. But I can say without a doubt that we are peaceful, content, and happy with the life we have created.
I decided to write this book for this very reason. So many people I talk to are not free. They aren’t living a life they love. More than that, they are miserable. They don’t know who they are or what they’re supposed to do in life. They feel empty, like they are missing something. They feel like they are a mistake or not good enough.
This book is for them. If you feel any of those things, this book is for you. I want you to find your own version of free. I don’t want you to struggle like I did for so many years. I want you to learn from my mistakes so you don’t have to make them yourself.
Using This Book
If you want to find freedom, then use this book as a manual. Keep a pen and a highlighter handy. Underline things, cross out what doesn’t work for you, highlight what helps you. Mark this book up. Digest it; let it change you. The best books I’ve read are marked up because I don’t want to forget what I learned from somebody else. I want to learn from their failures so I don’t have to experience them myself. I want to learn from their successes so I can experience those successes myself.
When you’ve finished this book, pass it on to somebody else. We all need to find free in our lives. Are you ready to get started? Are you ready to begin your journey of finding free? Grab a pen and get ready. Finding free begins now.
*Be sure to follow Faithfully Stepping on both Facebook and Instagram for a release date. While you’re waiting for Finding Free to release, check out my other book, The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life. You can read about that book in The Hidden Pain: A Peek into the Book I’m Writing.
