Blogs serve a multitude of purposes. Mine typically is to get you thinking about how you do life. The goal in that is to encourage you to seek change if life is a struggle or leaves you downcast. One way I have tried to do that is to make myself somewhat vulnerable through telling of my own stories. But I realize that sometimes that leaves people thinking I have it all together. HA!
In each of my blogs, I end with thanking you for letting me journey with you. That’s because I am on the same path you are. We’re all faced with picking and choosing which direction to go not just in the tough moments, but in the good as well. But it’s not these moments that I am focused on when I talk about transformation. These are the journey that we all must take and which we don’t get to decide the outcome even if we put a large amount of effort into planning. But determining how we face them is the place in which I am most concerned.
I often talk about our “stuff” that we bring with us. Did you know that your “stuff” helps you determine your response to the events in life? Not just how you feel about it, but how you will act towards it as well as in the wake of it. When I bring up the topic of transformation, I’m not just talking about feelings and emotions. Yes, that is part of it, but I’m also talking about the logic and the reasoning. I’m also addressing the spiritual.
Each of us live in these spaces. Some in greater ways than others. If you could divide yourself into these areas which would you find you lean into more? The terms self-aware, finding yourself, true self, are tough words in some circles. They suggest self-centeredness. In reality they are normal and healthy. Every person comes to a place where they must decide who they are. I’m talking about in a greater sense. We’re not loners. Learning who we are means more than internally. It determines how we engage with our world.
Jesus knew fully who he was and because of this he used his strengths to face his challenges. He also knew fully who others were. He either pointed it out to them as fault or used their fault to encourage them to change. Why? Because when we stay stuck in the negative thoughts and patterns that we learn it hinders our work and interaction with others. Jesus was about blessing. And he was about healthy mentality even in the worst of times. He didn’t do this on his own, he tapped into the resource of His Father, our Father, God.
When you decide which area you lean into: the logical, the emotional, or the spiritual, then you can look at the reasons why you do. You can also begin to distinguish the unhealthy patterns from the healthy. Let’s say you are more spiritual. You make a bad decision which ultimately causes you to go against God’s word, or sin. You respond by sincerely admitting your behavior to God and ask him to heal you. Or you punish yourself by condemning your lack of faith, your lack of discipline, or some other weakness. This can be done in each of these areas.
What I hope you see is that the way you respond to these situations develops who you are. If you are more apt to punish, then you may create unhealthy thought patterns. These lead to unhealthy behaviors. Oddly enough when we live this way on a regular basis we often get caught up in the cycle of unhealthy patterns. Real transformation occurs when we begin to be aware of ourselves, humble our “I can fix this” mentality, ask for help and receive grace.
-blessings
Monica Swank 