Befriend your emotions.

"It is obviously not good to act on your sudden emotions. But you don't have to repress them, either. You can acknowledge them and let them pass by. In a certain sense, you have to befriend them so that you do not become their victim."

- Henri Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love

My stress during daily activities can be overwhelming at times. Pushing it down and burrowing through the piles of work left to be done is a temptation as tasks pile up, and I'm left feeling I need to do more, be more to everyone else. I've been learning that dealing with stress as it comes keeps me healthier and more balanced.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Therapy gently reminds those of us dealing with stress that you can become aware of your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment (Seligman, Selecting Effective Treatments). We can choose how we act on our feelings. Each one does not control how we act. My Dad had a saying when I was growing up - "You are only responsible for your response." Acknowledging those thoughts, fears, and attitudes as they come gives me an awareness of what my needs are. This awareness of myself helps in daily tasks, relationships, and living a more balanced and happy life. 

This too can encourage us to draw closer to The Lord. Knowing our strengths and weaknesses, that we aren't perfect and do (and will always) have areas to grow reminds me to trust him. "In my weakness, I am strong," Paul writes in 1 Corinthians. We don't have to be everything. Those daily stressors are a daily reminder. 

Character.

I'm reading a few books for my Spiritual Direction course coming up in a few weeks. I've been interested in how these books present God's character.

One book on contemplative prayer (which emphasizes listening to God rather than always talking at him in our prayer time) discusses the idea that God "slaps us upside the head" to teach us a lesson in certain situations. His character is to intercede on our behalf and guide us out of darkness and into his will for our lives, not the opposite, and not to slap us around any victimizing way, however the consequences to our actions may feel.

"God will correct your behavior, but he never condemns your worth. It is the enemy who sends such thoughts as "I am no good", "I will never amount to anything", "I am a failure", "I am a nobody", "I am not important." But God says you are his "dear one" (he chooses you and knows all about you), his "beloved child," and a thousand other wonderful things." (Peter Lord, Hearing God, p. 132)

His character is good. And as he delights in us, his aim is not to shame us but to grow us up in healthy character like his.

Life planning.

I have friend who recently attended a missions conference to study linguistics.

She met another lady her age who feels called to Pakistan. She said she went to medical school and felt called to a specific, very narrow branch of medical physiology. She had never felt called to Pakistan - literally, she would have gone anywhere in the world but a Muslim nation - but the Lord "gave her the desire of her heart" and she recently found a hospital that was looking for a woman with her very specific training.

What struck my friend is that the Lord literally placed into her new missionary comrade the desire to study a certain branch of medicine & go to a country where she had felt called away from in the beginning.

I'm glad to serve one who gives me specific desires to grow, mold, and shape me into one who brings delight to him by doing the specific will that he places within me.