Day 82- Am I on the right path? How do you know?
📖Daily Reading
Psalms 1-8
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
Psalm 4: 2-4
How long will you people ruin my reputation? How long will you make groundless accusations? How long will you continue your lies? You can be sure of this: The Lord set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will answer when I call to him. Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent.
I chose this scripture because it encapsulated the concepts that that the first several chapters of Psalms were showing me. The importance of having things, people and systems that are not only reliable but that are reassuring. We as humans need to need, we have to rely on things outside of ourselves and we also need reassurance that we are on the right path and not alone. In our modern times and especially here in American we are taught a lot about self reliance, but even in this concept we should not be mistaken to believe that we can be totally self reliant, we always rely on things outside of ourselves, whether it is money, tools, ideas, beliefs. No one lives in a vacuum even a lone person in the woods has to rely on nature to be fed, water to be hydrated, his body for signals and information as he interacts with his environment and then he is in turn reassured by his vitality, energy, his body and brain that what he is doing is working or not working.
Understanding this now we can move onto David’s example of relying on not only God, but also on his interaction His ways and with reality. He is relying on his understanding of not only God’s order of things but also his understanding that evil is real and there are people out there that are out to get him. He is relying on God’s provision, his ways, his protection, his justice, his comfort etc.. He is reassured by having good advice like sleeping on something and not acting out of anger and passion of the moment. He is reassured by the truth that God is God and above him, but also that as humans we are not only made in his image but we have been given dominion over the earth. Psalm 8:4-6 says “what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority…”
What are you relying on and are you getting reassurance from it? I know I used to be a very naive person who relied on myself and my own people pleasing ways and looked for reassurance from others affirmations, happiness and moods. When people were not happy my naivety would show up as explaining away their reactions with things like ‘well maybe they had a rough day or a bad childhood’, ‘hurt people hurt people’, ‘they didn’t really mean it’…. Sometimes people need to be called out on their behavior, they don’t need me to ‘fragilize’ them. I also needed to be able to rely on myself to speak up for myself and reassure myself that I matter too. Sometimes people are just toxic and unhealthy. I am not unkind by accepting this reality. Does this resonate with you? Some of you may be the opposite, you may prejudge everyone harshly, be skeptical all the time, and even looking for a reason not to trust others. Either extreme of not dealing with reality and seeing people for how they are is not reliable or reassuring.
My ‘rose colored’ glasses way of being was not an overall reliable and reassuring way of living that produced good things in my life, instead it lead to overwhelm, pride, feeling inadequate, exhausted, ignoring my own needs, isolation, which in turn all led to bad habits in order to cope with this sense of overwhelm. Can you relate? Are you relying on yourself and others and finding reassurance in performing and pleasing others? Are you on the other extreme and you have built protective and impenetrable walls around yourself and are isolated?
For me I decided to give up my self reliance and give God a chance to reassure me. He has not failed me yet, the more I rely on him the more reassurance I get. I also try to live by his ways now and use the tools like David did, and sleeping on things and not being impulsive or impatient. Are you doing life on your own and in your own strength? We were built to need and to rely and to be reassured, we can’t do this all on our own for ourselves. At least not for the long term and not without developing some maladaptive coping strategies. Some of you might be like I was on the verge of a breakdown, but sometimes a breakdown may be just the thing that leads you to a breakthrough if you will rely on your body and brain telling you - ‘hey we need help here - we can’t do this anymore’. What if you relied on this and sought some healthy reassurance from a higher power and a ‘just like me’ community?
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
What are you relying on and are you getting reassurance from it? Are you relying on yourself and others and finding reassurance in performing and pleasing others? Are you on the other extreme and you have built protective and impenetrable walls around yourself and are isolated?
📖Tomorrows Reading
Psalms 9-15
Coaching Opportunity
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