Jan 28 FAITH ISN'T FIGURING OUT WHAT WE'RE ABLE TO DO. IT'S DECIDING WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO EVEN WHEN WE THINK WE CAN'T.

Affirmation: I’m imperfect and I am enough.

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Wholehearted Guidepost from Brené Brown 

Cultivate Creativity. Let go of Comparison.

HEALING OUR CREATIVE WOUNDS

We are encouraged to be creative as children, but then many of us start hearing messages that we're not good enough. How can we heal these creative wounds with positive messages?

RECOMMENDED MATERIALS

Your journal, permanent markers (different colors), Band-Aids and any other art supplies you'd like to use to decorate your page.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Open your journal to a new page. Using a red permanent marker, write down all the negative messages about creativity you have heard in your life, both directly and from society in general.

2. Now, cover these messages with Band-Aids.

3. Using a permanent marker in a different color, write healing messages to yourself on top of the Band-Aids.

4. Use any other art supplies you'd like to decorate your page of creative, healing messages.

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Mastering the 7 Decisions from Andy Andrews 

The Compassionate Decision 

6. I WILL GREET THIS DAY WITH A FORGIVING SPIRIT.

By the act of forgiving, I am no longer consumed by unproductive thoughts. I will forgive those who have criticized me unjustly.

I now understand that forgiveness has value only when it is given away. I forgive their lack of vision, and I forge ahead.

I now know that criticism is part of the price paid for leaping past mediocrity. I will forgive those who do not ask for forgiveness. From this day forward, my history will cease to control my destiny. I have forgiven myself. My life has just begun.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

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Reading for Today

Walk in Grace. Live in Love. by Bob Goff

Jan. 28

FAITH ISN'T FIGURING OUT WHAT WE'RE ABLE TO DO. IT'S DECIDING WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO EVEN WHEN WE THINK WE CAN'T.

Jesus replied, "What is impossible with man is possible with God."

LUKE 18:27 

 

I love how much Jesus talked about kids when He taught. He spoke to audiences packed with people who had memorized entire books of the Bible, religious leaders who were the recognized authorities on religious truth, leaders in the community. I bet they expected to be commended by Jesus for all their titles and degrees and perhaps affirmed as the ones who should be the guides for everyone else. Yet this isn't how Jesus rolled. Instead, He pointed to a couple of kids and told everyone that if they wanted to find understanding, they would need to trade in their large, complicated faith and have faith like a child. In other words, it wouldn't be when we earn the extra theology degrees or enter into formal ministry when faith leaps forward. Jesus said our faith will grow when we regain a sense of childlike wonder.

 

Nothing is impossible to kids. Ask them what they want to be when they grow up and they'll tell you, in all sincerity, they're going to wear NASA suits and fly to the moon. Sometimes I wonder if the only reason more of them don't do it is because we adults spend the next few decades telling them they can't. It's like we have our hands on their shoulders as they sit and each time we tell them to get up and chance their dream, we also tell them why it won't work. With each of these words of correction, we push them down a little harder into their seats.

 

But faith puts reason in its place. There's nothing wrong with using the minds God has given us. When our heads tell our hearts that our dreams are too big, or that we should grow up and be more reasonable with our faith, this is just a reminder to go find your kids playing and park and watch them interact with the same world you're living in. Then take them to get snow cones with extra syrup, get it all over your shirts, and let them tell you about their big, messy, outrageous dreams. Children are the ones Jesus sent to be our guides because faith isn't figuring out what we're able to do. It's deciding what we're going to do even when we think we can't.

 

What's an outrageous dream you've buried that God might want you to dig up again?