Preach to Yourself
Today I kept telling myself what to do. “If you do your morning routine, you’ll feel so good. And then that will give you momentum to do the next thing which then becomes the catalyst for a productive day.” My niece and I were talking today, and with our personality types, we both have to offer ourselves a lot of self-talk. One of my big ones is, “love your future self, by doing this thing (whatever it is) now".
So I put on my mineral face sunscreen. I spent some time in the book of Acts, prayed for the people in my life to be “humble and hearty”, read, and took a nice 2-mile walk. I did a lot of tidying, washed my sheets, vacuumed, folded clothes, did the dishes, navigated online registrations for sports, took a kid to work, shopped at Aldi, and then took a deep long nap. Finding a daytime rhythm that includes focused work and deep rest is when I feel like I am in my sweet spot. Time for both is important. That nap will keep me alert when we go to see Black Widow tonight at the movies!
Sloppy Joes are for dinner. Pioneer Woman has the recipe I like the best, especially because she has you butter and toast your buns on a griddle. That extra step makes all the difference! I also like to add in some shredded mozzarella as a topping to my Sloppy Joes. I am going to go begin browning the meat and making the sauce in a few minutes, letting it sit warm until we are ready to eat. I don’t *feel* like cooking dinner, but I preach to myself that the night will go so much better when I simply follow through on my menu plan. Sometimes we need the freedom to scrap the plan, but most of the time we need to push through our fogginess and lethargy.
Preaching to myself happens in the small ways like making my bed and in the large ways like forgiving someone I feel wronged by. It’s telling ourselves the truth of what is good and right instead of being blown around by our feelings. Feelings are helpful but also fickle. When we already know what is good to do, like brushing our teeth, we don’t need to think about how we feel about that action; we just do it. We already know much of what is good to do when we spend time reading God’s words to us. When he offers a promise or an instruction, we can know it’s the right thing to do without getting into an argument with our feelings. Forgiveness is always His will. And we work that out slowly, with Him, choosing the good over what we don’t necessarily want.
The most growth has happened in my life when I keep preaching to myself a vision of the life I want to live, of what fruit I want to be born, of what I want to be known for at the end of my life. Life is made up of days, and the days of small steps. And those small steps are the movement on the path towards the vision. The small steps are where I need the Life Coach, the Holy Spirit, to preach to me, to direct my paths. He enables me to do the work. He prompts my mind to choose the better ways. I stumble, I make mistakes, but I keep coming back to that companionship. As I heard recently in a podcast, He hasn’t come to “fix us but to call us to companionship”. And as I walk with Him, I am transformed. The fruit is born and the life is well-lived.
May you preach the good, true, and beautiful to yourself today, trusting the Spirit while walking the path the life!
Aimee