Daily Challenge #19

Habits...

What are some of the habits you have - good or bad?

Do you get up in the morning and do the same routine?

Do you brush your teeth with the same hand?

Do you bite your nails?

Do you think the same negative thoughts about the same negative people?

Do you do the same routine each time you get into your car?

I basically do the same thing everyday. Turn off my alarm. Think to myself, "Time to make the donuts." (that donut commercial from the nineties has stuck with me this long, why change now?) Walk to the bathroom. etc.

I have a routine, a habit which gives me the same results.

Walk out of the house by 6:50, Carson to daycare, one of the older boys to school, and me to work before 7:30. 

Habits are ingrained into us.

This is the pattern - Cue: Routine: Reward.

For an alcoholic it goes something like this: I feel lonely/anxious/unloved/dissed. I drink. I feel relaxed.

For my morning routine: The alarm blares. I get up and get moving. I get to work on time.

Basically we all have habits. We all live with them on a daily basis. Sometimes we get them pointed out to us by others. Many of them we don't ever think about - we just do them.

In the AA program, there are 12 steps to change habits. Basically you need to figure out what your habits are. Know the cues which cause you to do the habit. Figure out what routine you do to get the reward. Know the reward you expect for acting out the habit. Admit you can't change on your own and you need help. Confess and profess the change in your heart, your desire to genuinely make a fresh start. Be accountable to others. 

Basically you need to change the middle step. You need to change the routine it takes for you to get the reward, or feeling which you experience. The alcoholic will always have the same cues. He/she will at times feel down/anxious/hurt. The key is to changing the means of getting to the reward. The alcoholic will find friends to talk thru their pain/hurt/anxiety so that they still get to feeling of being loved/accepted/desired. Some turn to exercise to release their pent up emotion. Something needs to change in their routine.

So this week's challenge is to write down some of the habits you have. Think through the cues. Evaluate how you respond. What reward is there for you? What do you get out of the habit. How do you react when you're hurt/lonely/anxious? 

Daily Challenge #18

Good morning,

Last night I took the opportunity to listen to Mark Batterson. He's a pastor at National Community Church in Washington, D.C. He wrote a book called The Circle Maker, which I recently finished. The book has been revolutionary for my prayer life. One of the quotes from the book, "Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers," has deeply challenged me. Mark did a great job speaking last night and I'm very glad it worked out for me to listen to him. It was one of those God moments. The Lord had to get me to this little church in Cumming, GA, to have me listen to Him. 

But let me back up to let you know how it all went down. I really wanted to go and see Mark speak. I asked a couple of friends to go with, but they both had stuff going on. I asked Troy what his work schedule was, because it's all over the place. He told me he should be home about 4:30. That would work great since he would be able to pick up Carson. He didn't seem interested in going with me to hear this speaker, so I planned on leaving from work so that I wouldn't be late, since Cumming is about 45 minutes away. At noon when I talked to Troy, he said that he was not going to be back in time to get Carson. You know how it is, something about his work was busy and this and that happened.

"There's always an excuse." That's the phrase I use most in our house these days. No one wants to man-up and take responsibility. It's always the fault of something or someone else. We all have an excuse for everything... Ok, back to the story.

After getting frustrated with Troy for his stupid schedule, and for letting me down (honesty hurts.. but  I had to apologize for that one later!), I decided that I would pick Carson up from daycare and still go to hear Mark. I was convinced that I needed to go to hear this guy whom I follow his blog which is the way I found that he was speaking in Cumming. My handy-dandy smart phone has navigation on it, so Carson and I trekked our what through the bush to this little church.

The lady greeting us at the door was very helpful, leading Carson to the kid's area. Carson loved the kids play area, and the little older lady LOVED him. I knew he was in good hands when he took her hand and they skipped off to the slide.

The service started out with the youth praise band leading songs and prayer. There was the sweetest spirit in that place. It took a while to break down my hurt/rushed/anxious/angry/empty feelings. I hate feeling let down. It seems to cut straight to my heart when it happens. I'm sure there is something in my past which causes me to have these feelings. Perhaps that's an excuse to not deal with it or figure out where that stems from. So I'm standing there bawling my eyes out, realizing how rebellious I am, and apologizing for my little temper tantrums when I don't get my way. Then it hits me: this was exactly the place I was supposed to be in that moment. Broken, honest, real, talking to God.

This is getting to be a long post; sorry for that. (Jackie, for some reason, I have you in mind...)

By the time Mark got up to speak, the Lord had already spoken to me. There was some reprimand, some encouragement, some reassurance.

Here are a few of the points I took away from last night's message:

Establish a prayer habit.

You will never break the sin habit if you don't develop a prayer habit.

Think through your prayer genealogy - who has prayed for you, who are you praying for?

It's a powerful thing when someone vocally intercedes for you.

You are one prayer away from a totally different life.

Pray in the margins of your life - all the mundane tasks - dishes, laundry, driving.

Find the location of your greatest connection with God - where has He revealed Himself to you? Where did you experience Him? Go back to that place - re-connect with Him there.

God's timing is impeccable.

God wants to do something different - we need to try something different to experience God's change.

Be great at the Great Commandment.

Meet with God and He will be sure you meet the right people.

When is is harder to leave the presence of God than to get into His presence, something great is about to happen.

 

So I don't know what the challenge could be from this post, but I'm praying that God has something for you in it.

Maybe you need to:

-say you're sorry to someone for something you're holding against them, be honest about your hurt.

-find a prayer closet and climb in.

-go to the place where God met you - re-visit that place.

-make time daily to meet with God.

-rely on Him to meet your needs.

-write a note to the person who has prayed for you in the past.

-pray out loud for your kids, family, friends.

-don't fear to ask God for the big things.

Daily Challenge #16

think about someone you've lost in your life.... 
if they were still here.... what would you like for them to know? 
write a letter to that person.
(you don't have to share it with anyone)

just for the purpose of getting it out.