HOW do I consciously surrender on a daily basis?

Honest

Open minded

Willing

Am I honest, open minded and willing? All of these qualities are important to change.... am honest that I don't know all the answers and that I can't change on my own? am I open minded to taking instruction, learning from and following another? and am I willing to do whatever it takes to line my life up to discipline myself and be accountable?

At this time of year when we are anxious to begin afresh and achieve new goals in our lives, we look back and survey the last year to learn from our mistakes and purpose to do better. What if better comes not from trying but from surrendering?

Conscious Surrender

The discipline that has brought the largest change in my life, has been learning to devote my first hour or hours of the day to meet with Almighty God. To sit in His presence and practice letting myself go into HIS hands. I practice surrender here, and look to see His face, to hear His voice and His love and grace for me. It is in this first hours of my day that I am sure of who I am in Him, and sure of His love and acceptance of me. My purpose of these times is to lay down my life in His hands, to see and meet with Him.

How this has changed my life? I long for that time with Him each night before I fall asleep, anxious for that first morning hour. It is our special time, where He speaks to me, where He leads me, where I study of Him, where I am safe and perfectly loved and accepted. It is through those times that I am changed, strengthened and encouraged through the power that He supplies through the living Christ and the Holy Spirit.

I have found that whatever God tells me to do, that He also supplies the power to do it. It is in those moments of just He and I that I am most changed through His word and the power of the Spirit, supplied with the strength to face whatever the day may hold.

It is through surrender to Him that my life and purpose has been found. "Conscious Surrender" every morning of myself to the triune GOD, to be used for His purpose.

Little things count

I am painting my bathroom, and while I love things to look good, I find that I get impatient with the time that it takes to make it perfect, thus I begin looking for ways to cut corners to get it done. I am finding in my quest for a more diligent self disciplined life that I cut corners a lot. I am finding that it takes tons of discipline on my part to finish something once I lose interest or maybe another fun thing comes along. The "new shiny thing" whatever it is, catches my eye and I am distracted and going in a new direction. I have been in the process of learning to be more disciplined for years and rarely does anyone notice that I am falling away from something, but I know it to be true....it's in the little things that I am trying to cut corners...those details that you would not see unless you look super close. Little things DO make a difference. Many undone little things add up to big things, and those big things will overtake you. Every little thing that I do not do, that I know I need to do, or should do, zaps me of much needed energy for other things in my life.

I want my integrity to be solid and my life disciplined as unto the Lord to bring Him glory no matter what I do, especially in those things that no one else sees.....The real character of a man is determined not by what he does when others are looking but what he does when no one is looking.

You can't move forward while you are holding on to the past.

I will to do the right thing, but I end up doing what I do not want to do. I love Romans 7 in that it addresses that we inside ourselves want to do one thing, and yet we end up doing the very thing that we did not want to do. As we come up to New Years and new beginnings, and struggle with the lack of self discipline through the Christmas season of food and more food, I find that I am willing myself not to each so much and to keep with my exercise program, only to end up eating too much and not getting in a good work out. What? what is going on in me? Do you feel as though you are white knuckling it through the season instead of enjoying it all. What is wrong?

Ask yourself.... What is keeping me from doing what I desire to do and disciplining myself the way I usually do?

Disciplines go out the window when we do not make time for them and keep them in the proper priority. Why are you doing what you are doing in the first place? What is motivating you today?

Make one change that will make room again to keep one of your disciplines. What will that change be?

Do I love to learn? Many love to learn new things. The Bible says that knowledge "puffs up". We are in an age of knowledge. We can go to google or the internet and find out just about anything, and yet I find that we are not being taught by this information and changing our lives but rather being "puffed up". Today there are a lot of puffed up people walking around bumping into each other rather than learning and being taught be each other. Having a teachable spirit means that you let another teach you. They lead, you follow. In this information age with so much knowledge on the internet and all around us, I fear that we are taking in all this information and not connecting instead with others older and wiser than we are. We become a bunch of know it all's that don't need others and don't ask for help. I am suggesting that being teachable means that we don't have all the answers and we admit we need help. We let another lead us, mentor us, teach us, and yes at times discipline us. This discipline often comes in the form of challenging us and questioning us, holding us accountable for our actions and the outcome of our actions. We all to some extent want to do our own thing. But real growth comes when we let others teach us and we follow, learn, and change in the process...

am I teachable?

How do I feel about discipline? How do I feel about authority? These are two important questions simply for the reason that if I don't like being under another's authority and or see discipline as a negative, I probably do not have a teachable spirit. When I am not teachable, I am stubborn.... and a stubborn spirit is not likely to see much lasting change. Anytime I am locked into my own way of thinking and not willing to be taught, what I am really saying is "I want it my way". Look at your life? What is not going as you wish it would? What changes do you want to see? If you could make those changes alone, my guess is, you would have made them already.

Are you open to asking for help and then following that advice? Are you willing to admit that you do not have the answers to another and come under their authority and let them teach you?

Having a teachable spirit is necessary if change is going to occur.

STUBBORN...resistant to change, and immoveable. It's not a positive thing to be known as stubborn and a defect of character.

Giving up

How often over the years I have made a promise to myself or a declaration of something that I am going to do and somewhere during the process I lose focus, get discouraged, get tired of the discipline necessary and give up. Why? Was my motivation wrong? Did I set the goal too high? Was I really serious about what I wanted in the first place? What did I really hope to accomplish? All of these questions are valid. Most times in the past when I did not follow through with a goal I had not considered the cost at the beginning or asked myself these very important questions. and thus I ended up giving up, only to feel like a failure and feeling frustrated at yet another goal or dream not realized.

There is hope however, and there are strategic ways to make and keeping your goals. In the next few days and weeks I will be writing about goals, motivations, discipline, perseverance, counting the cost, and the power to change.

For Today

Today I am loving life and loving the gift of Addison our granddaughter. We have the great joy of having our kids and Addison live with us for a few weeks. Today is my husbands birthday..He's 59 and I am so very thankful for him and our life together. Pure JOY!

Friendship

Friendships are important to creativity. Yesterday I met with a friend and exchanged some ideas about a speaking thing we are doing together. After two hours of sharing, thinking, and bouncing ideas off each other I was not only encouraged but I was joyful and full of energy. It is important to connect with a good friend every day. It makes me a fuller , richer person. Friendships are such an important part of our lives I wonder why we don't make more time for them.

Time

Time is love. Giving of your time is precious. When time is gone, it's gone. No do overs, no getting it back. We can't buy it, but we give it away and we waste it. I am suggesting that by giving your time, you are giving love. Relationships aren't built without time, and relationships without time die.

What is getting my time today? Is it tasks? or people?

It's been a along time since I've blogged. Life has been busy and full. In the past year, two children have married and our fifth grand child was been born. I have travelled almost every month between work and family. I am amazed at how life can edge out those things that we aspire to do and before we know it, what we wanted to do and set out to do is not happening. We wake up and wonder what happened?

Blogging was one of those things that I wanted to keep up with. It wasn't a high priority so I didn't keep up with it. I think it's that simple. I'd like to work at blogging everyday or at least every other day. In part for my coaching business and in part because I like it. I like to discipline myself to do new things. The discipline is good for me and I learn a great deal about myself in the process.