We Need
Some Alone Time
Greetings, Lovelies! Week one of my plan has been accomplished! I wanted to fall more in love with
God. To do this, I wanted to put
into practice some relationship techniques that I am familiar with. As we know, when you invest your time,
money, and energy into something, it is representative of your heart’s
focus. (Where your treasure is,
your heart will be also!) I want
my heart to be focused on God! I
want to fall in love with Love Himself!
(If you didn’t catch the first post on this, I encourage you to take a
minute to check it out. It’s
entitled “Because of Love.”)
Because
my primary love language is Quality Time (Chapman, 2010), I wanted to use this
love language first. It is
something familiar to me and a language that I speak fluently. And now for an honest reflection on
week one of my challenge…
Ok,
totally hard to find time for Quality Time. (big sigh) At
the start of the week, I had all of this energy and enthusiasm to spend half an
hour in praise and worship. I
love, love, love praise and worship time.
It’s practically at the top of my list of important things to have at a
church. I get such a thrill out of
basking in God’s presence and feeling the awe of our Creator. So awesome! I couldn’t wait to spend some quality time with God over my
favorite activity.
I
started a new job this week and had lots of obligations that I committed to in
the evenings. You know how when
you start a new job, your mind seems to be occupied with the new job most of
the time? At least for the first
couple of weeks? Maybe it’s just
me. My mind focused around work,
work, and work. This new job has
been a career I’ve been working towards for the last three years. With my mind on work and my days
stretching into the evening with meetings and catching up on my to-do list,
finding time to schedule in ½ hour of worship time was very difficult. I felt horrible about this!
I
caught myself several times writing out a to-do list and overlapping chores
with worship time, “Well, I can worship while
I’m doing the dishes…. God would understand…. I have lots to do! I just can’t be up late…” These thoughts made me feel even more
horrible! I can’t take ½ hour to
spend time with the Creator of the universe without multitasking over
dishes?!?!
I
decided to cut some items off of my to-do list. God was worth this.
He is the best investment.
Dishes can wait. Besides,
didn’t He say He would reward us when we put Him first? This Quality Time was worth it. I put on some Hillsong worship songs
and started to praise. In my
moment of honesty with you, Folks, I had a difficult time focusing my mind on
God. My mind tried to wander on
topics of work, chores, and bedtime.
My heart was in the right place, but taming my mind was tough! In the midst of my guilt, God reminded
me of the devotion message I had read the day before:
“It’s all right to be human.
When your mind wanders while you are praying, don’t be surprised or
upset. Simply return your
attention to Me. Share a secret
smile with Me, knowing that I understand.
Rejoice in My love for you, which has no limits or conditions…” (Young,
2004).
What
a gift of love! In all of my
humanness, God loves me anyways.
Week one was a humbling experience. On to week two, Friends! Putting forth Words of Affirmation to practice!
*More weeks to be posted
later.
*Chapman, G. 2010. The 5 love
languages: the secret to love that lasts. Northfield Publishing: Chicago,
Illinois.
*Young, Sarah. 2004. Jesus
calling. Pg. 24. Thomas Nelson: Nashville, Tennessee.
Month
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January
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January
|
February
|
February
| |
Week Starting
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21st
|
28th
|
4th
|
11th
|
18th
|
Love Language being used
|
Quality Time
|
Words of Affirmation
|
Gifts
|
Acts of Service
|
Physical Touch
|
How?
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Spend half an hour this week alone in “praise and worship” time.
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Write God a "love letter."
|
*To be announced!
(Please feel free to share ideas!) |
*To be announced!
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*To be announced!
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