Nourishment 12

Reflect on your week and revisit the things that were most profound to you. In silent meditation, offer these thoughts to God in an act of confession of the things that are happening in your life, your heart and your mind.

These attributes are important to our direction, which we will talk more about next week, so the more we process the importance of them in our lives, the better we will be able to work with them as we go forward.

Prayer: As you confess to God, let him guide you in your thought and search you for insights that he may want you to process from the week.

Nourishment 11

People with strong identities know what they want and need, and find it easy to make boundaries for themselves. They can govern what is good for them by themselves without being swayed by media, sales people, or persuasive individuals in their environment. This comes from knowing their values and knowing themselves. These individuals usually see people as being equal in value, allowing them to be confident in most any relational situation.

People with especially week identities look for their identity or happiness in other people or circumstances. It's easy for these people to join causes or strive for important jobs, nice cars or impressive college degrees in an effort to feel like they have a strong identity and purpose. Others let people determine their moods, action and even their personality traits, resulting in an emotionally volatile life. They might apologize too much for fear of offending others, or distance themselves with arrogance in an effort to protect themselves. They may be super sensitive to other's reactions. These individuals often see people on different levels of value, creating tension between those “above and below” them.

Identity isn't created, it grows in us over time as we nurture ourselves. We need to spend time learning who we are and protecting ourselves as we discover our values.

Prayer: Pray that God would help you discover who you are and who he created you to be.

Nourishment 10

When we talk about attitude we can talk about two things in general: How we feel emotionally and how we deal with things based on our outlook.

How we feel.
Although our feelings fluxuate often, if we seem to default to a certain unhealthy feeling which lasts for months or even years, we should probably address the matter. Feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, anger, depression, frustration, fear, confusion, dependency, lack of dependency, hopelessness, blame, and guilt are just a few unhealthy feelings that are common in many people's lives.

How we deal.
Our outlook alone can determine whether we are fulfilled in life or completely defeated. Although most people fall somewhere in between the two, most don't purposefully own their attitude in order to give themselves complete permission to make the most out of life. Some problematic habits such as future telling (Thinking you know what's really going to happen before it does), mind reading (Determining people's opinions without warrant), and black and white thinking, mixed with a glass half empty world few can wreak havoc on jobs, relationships and personal growth.

Search your feelings today and be encouraging but honest with yourself about where your attitude is. Right now we just want to identify the issues. Don't worry about tackling them yet, just think about how they effect your life.

Prayer: Pray that God would open your eyes to your attitude.

Nourishment 9

We often overlook many of our abilities as they seem natural to us or we have lived with them for so long that we under rate them. Think about all of the things you possess talent wise, personality wise, financially, physically and materialistically. Look back at the accomplishments you have achieved through your life and track the areas where you have grown more able. It's also wise to ask people close to you to talk to you about your talents. This exercise is usually surprising and almost always very encouraging.

Now think about where you feel you should be more confident. We all have places we want to go or things that we want to do but can't because of our inabilities. Where do you find you are hesitant or even fearful to move in a direction?

Remember, fear begets more fear within us, but reclaiming areas of our life give us the confidence to reclaim other areas as well.

Prayer: Pray that God would solidify confidence in your current abilities and help empower you to grow in others where you are weak.

Nourishment 8

Today, think about the things that you believe in your life. What do you believe about politics, religion, human nature? What about yourself? What do you believe about your abilities, your intelligence, your personality, your social abilities, your limitations and strengths? What do you believe about the most important things happening in your life right now?

As you think about these things, follow them back as far as you can to the places where these beliefs were born. Were they from things people told you? Where they from the environment that you lived in? Were they things you just assumed about yourself? Question the sources that founded your beliefs. Test their motivations, reliability and legitimacy. When you can reprocess the beliefs that you have typically accepted without question, you will gain ownership over them and your confidence and identity will grow much more strong. You can speak with confidence as to why you hold the beliefs that govern your life.

Prayer: Pray that God would help you search through the murky waters of memory to help you reach the source of your beliefs as you try and process them.

Nourishment 7

This week we want to look at some core attibutes that define who we are. Most, if not all of our actions are a result of a predetermined factor or something we have learned. This week we want to start taking these things apart, see where they came from and test whether they match up with our life direction.

By now we have already experienced some amount of change in our lives and grown comfortable with some tools we have learned. We may already feel more confident in some areas where we didn't a couple months ago. This is a good time to look back over our purpose statement. At this point we can refresh ourselves on what we wrote in December, or we might want to edit it based on some areas we have recently grown.

Remember, this is your reference which we will continually use to measure your direction.

Prayer: Pray for wisdom and direction for your future.

Nourishment 6

Saturday
Look back on your log for the week. See what kinds of patterns you find in how you live. You might want to separate them into categories to see how much energy you give to certain things.

What did you learn about yourself? Are you encouraged by anything that you have learned? Do you see some areas where you can improve? Comparing your findings to your purpose statement. Do the findings look like you are on track and headed the right direction for yourself?

Prayer: Pray that God would show you the path you are on in your life compared to the path you want to be on.

Nourishment 5

Friday
We don't often think of our mental health when we take inventory of our lives. Emotional or mental issues are often very hard to discern since we usually think “that's just how I am.” Having counseling checkups can be very helpful especially in difficult times. Just like we all catch colds, we all get off track sometimes of where we should be with our emotional health.

Do you have a good resource to keep you accountable for your mental health? Do you give yourself personal time to evaluate how you are feeling and what you are experiencing emotionally? Are there times you have ever thought “Maybe I am depressed.” or “I might have an issue with anger/communication skills/intimacy etc...”.

Prayer: Pray that God would always help you to discern you mind, heart and spirit.

Nourishment 4

Today consider your physical body. What trend would you say you are on with your health? How you take care of yourself today determines how well you function tomorrow.

Think about what kinds of food you eat and think about how well they are giving your body what it needs. How much do you exercise? Is it enough that you can feel a difference? When was the last time you got a physical check up or had a dentist appointment?

Prayer: Pray that you would pay attention to the value of your body as the vessel you have been given for your whole life.

Nourishment 3

Think about your finances. It's a really good idea to look at your bank account and add up what you spend your money on. Sometimes we spend way more than we expect on things that we might think are trivial or unimportant. Our money is often a sensitive conversation, but it's something that we as responsible stewards need to master in a healthy way.

What we buy isn't just a statement about us, it is important because we are financially supporting everything we buy whether we agree with it or not. If we are buying things that we don't believe in, then we are directly contributing to the building of a world that is contrary to our values.

Prayer: Pray that God will help you to be honest with yourself about your spending and give you wisdom in this sensitive area.

Nourishment 2

Think about what kinds of media you let into your life? What kinds of books, magazines and newspapers do you read? What do you spend time doing on the web? What kinds of TV or movies do you watch?

After you think of these things compare them to your purpose statement (Blog: Stewardship – December 7) and see if they are lining up with the things you believe in and the direction you want to go in your life. If you were your own boss evaluating your life performance vs what is stated as in your purpose statement how would you rate yourself?

Prayer: Pray that God would help you sort out these things and show you how they relate to your life.

Nourishment 1

As we have mentioned in the past, we only have a limited amount of time per day, per year, per life. We want take this week to inventory our days hour by hour the best we can. Don't be a perfectionist about it. Just keep a list by your bed and jot down what you did during the day.

Prayer: Pray that God would start to show you the patterns of importance in your life.