Safety - Day 12

Take today to reflect on the the week, or maybe the month, and see how your mind may have changed and grown from the beginning to now. Maybe skimming over the blogs will help you remember your journey.

Go over the change you have experienced and revisit and process the time. See if something else stands out to you this time. If you have experienced change, think about how much transformation you will experience in the future as you work on these issues. Sometimes taking some time and looking back on your growth can be an enormous encourager.

Prayer: Take this day to thank God for the work he is doing in you and the work he has planned for your future.

Safety - Day 11

Considering your thoughts from yesterday, let's start planning and placing emotional boundaries.

As we did with physical boundaries, look for the smallest and most impending emotional boundaries that you need to protect. Start easy and with situations that will be relevant soon, then use that momentum to start setting larger boundaries as you are ready.

While you are processing these things, think of your emotions as if you were given responsibility over them from your future self who is depending on you for their protection. In reality that future self is relying on you to protect them and make them a healthy, able person. You have a responsibility to work on these areas and own yourself and your emotions.

Prayer: Don't let failure frustrate you. Pray again for grace from God as you work through these difficult and confusing areas.

Safety - Day 10

Now let's look at emotional boundaries.

Our feelings are our own and we are responsible for them. Other people are not allowed to make us feel ways we shouldn't. We also aren't responsible for others feelings, but often we damage ourselves trying to be responsible for the happiness of others. If we try to make everyone happy then we can never move forward in transformation or anything else. In the end when we stand up and put our foot down, people may not like it, but they usually respect us in the end. Also, we are empowered and freed to movement in our lives.

How many times have you regretted not taking a stand where you knew you needed to? Many times we yield to someone else's will though we know that doing something different is the right thing. When we end up being part of the blame because we didn't do the right thing, we feel like we betrayed ourselves and we lose trust in our own decisions.

Where in your life do you allow people to effect your emotions or actions? Why is this? Is it because you respect the other person so much? Is it because you feel inferior to them? Is it because you want to avoid conflict? Really think about these things today. These are some of the most prevalent boundary violations in many people's lives and it often comes down to the strength of our identity.

Prayer: Pray that God would help you to be honest with yourself about the confronting the people and situations that effect your emotional boundaries.

Safety - Day 9

Revisit the physical boundaries that you processed yesterday and spend today thinking about where you need to put your boundaries to protect and free yourself. If you know that you are going to face a boundary soon, start with that one, especially if it is a small one. Maybe there is someone at work that you know you are going to have to deal with first thing in the morning. Starting with the small issues will help to build the confidence to deal with the larger issues.

Through out the week start expanding your physical boundaries to the larger issues. Some of them may take some forethought before you deal with them, so that you have realistic expectations, or are ready to deal with surprises that may present themselves.

Our physicality is our most obvious boundary, so it is good to start here as we begin to learn how to deal with boundaries, especially if we haven't really been good with this in the past.

Prayer: Pray that God with give you the strength and wisdom to place boundaries in areas where you have not had them.

Safety - Day 8

Spend today processing the physical boundaries that are currently being crossed in your life. You may not even know that boundaries are being crossed if you haven't learned too much about setting them. Even though you may feel the effects of them being crossed, sometimes we grow used to destructive forces and let them become a part of our lives and sometimes our foundations.

Our bodies are our own and are the first and most important boundary to protect. Think about people , things or situations that physically violate your space. Anything that happens to our bodies creating discomfort is probably crossing a boundary of some sort. The variety of these kinds of encroachments could span anything from, variations of physical abuse, to a crowding roommate, or a neighbor making too much noise at night, to a bad smell in your house.

Spend today identifying these crossed physical boundaries. Think of all parts of your life, large and small.

Prayer: Pray that God would help you to see where you need to learn to protect yourself.

Safety - Day 7

Last week we looked at negative presences in our lives and thought about how our lives would look replacing those with positives. This week we will learn a little about setting up boundaries to to help us interact between the two. Developing boundaries is essential to give ourselves a safe personal space to have movement, whether that movement is change, progress or just the freedom to be ourselves.

Can you think of places in your life where your boundaries, large or small were crossed? These could be small daily situations like someone talking our ear off and not respecting our time, or someone dictating to us how to raise our child, or dictating how we should function as an artist. On the opposite scale many of us have experienced physical, verbal or sexual abuse. How have these broken boundaries in your life effected you? How have they effected your beliefs, identity, attitude or abilities?

Prayer: Let God guide you in his grace to help you process potentially difficult memories in your life.

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 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.

Patience: Friday January 8

Think about areas where you are patient with some people in difficult situations and areas where you are impatient in others. What is different about these situations that allow you to be patient with some people but not others? Are these beliefs about yourself, the other person/people, or maybe both?

Prayer: Pray that God helps balance your ability to be patient in different situations.

Patience: Thursday January 7

Where are you patient or impatient with people around you? People's driving? Students or children not learning fast enough. Communication with someone at work or a spouse? Who are these people and what are the issues?

Prayer: Pray that God illuminates even subtle areas of impatience that you might not see.

Stewarship: Saturday December 12

Today we will process these topics in the context of relational influence.

Think about the people that have helped to define these values in yourself and the effect that had on you and maybe others you know of. Have you or can you be that same sort of influence to someone else?

Are there people in your life now that share these values and maybe a similar purpose? Who could you share these ideas with that could help support you?

Prayer: Pray that God would show you the power of relationships and that He would help you find your place among your peers as a person of influence and a person to be influenced.

Stewardship: Friday December 10

As you consider your purpose, talents and passions you have probably started to think about your direction. Even before reading these devotions you may have had some ideas of direction and purpose that you want to act on.

Today, think about obstacles that may stand in your way. Are these obstacles real or perceived? We have talked about receiving permission through God's unique grace for each of us. We have talked about receiving talents and passions from God as He created us for unique purposes. You have written a purpose statement to help you discern your direction. Hold your obstacles up against these truths and see how they measure up.

Prayer: Ask God to put your difficulties in perspective to your calling.

Stewardship - Friday December 4

In church we talked about how God already owns everything so, when we offer of ourselves, we essentially offer back what is already God's.

When you think about offering your life's resources back to God, which are the hardest ones to offer and why? When you think about the things that maybe you should give up to make space for more valuable and healthy things, think deeply about any difficulties you have with allowing yourself to do so.

Prayer: Pray that God will teach you more about the value of your resources as you think about these issues.

Stewardship - Thursday December 3

So far this month we have thought about things to appreciate and be thankful for. Today, we will look for things you may appreciate too much.

What are things in your life that you hold high in value that maybe you shouldn't. Sometimes these can be easier to identify when you think of them in terms of what you do with your resources. Often, a quick look at your bank statement can tell you a lot about what you really value.

Think of things you give a lot of time, money, effort or thought to (pay attention to this as you go about your day too). Do these things line up with your values and mirror things you believe in? Do they line up with your plans for your future? Do they help move you to a place where your talents are better utilized and nurtured?

Prayer: Pray that God will help you find unnecessary things in your life and help align your life to better fit your purpose.

Stewardship - Wednesday December 2

Today we will also look for things to be thankful for, but with a different take. Today we will look at things we take for granted that we really should deeply appreciate.

We get used to our bodies, our planet, our relationships, and the culture around us as we are born into them and grow with them throughout our lives. Today, challenge those thoughts. Think about all of the things your body can do, all of the things that exist on our planet and the complex systems that keep them in action. Think about all of the people you have known and all of the things you have learned from them. Let your imagination take you as far as it can go. Don't edit it. See where it takes you, even if it's silly. When you get there, think about God's plan for His creation in that place.

Though this is an exercise in appreciation, it will also help show you just how large and creative God is.

Prayer: Pray that God will reveal Himself as you ponder His creation.

Gratitude: Wednesday November 18

As we understand what it really means to be the body of Christ, how well do you feel that you know your part within this body? Do you feel the real benefits of having the other parts around you. Do you feel that others are benefiting from the talents and purposes that God made you to do?

Prayer: Ask God to help make you aware of the distance and the functional relationship between those around you.

(Convergence has access to some good assessment tools for anyone that would like to get some insight into how they may be gifted in certain kinds of ministry. Ask any staff members and we will get you started.)

Gratitude: Tuesday November 17

Keeping in mind our ideas from yesterday about our unity with God and each other, think about the honor bestowed on us when God actually calls us part of His body. He could have just called us friends or children only. Dwell intently on the depths of what it means to have such an intimate and personal definition of our place as defined by God himself.

Prayer: Ask God to help us understand our true place in his will, his family and his kingdom.