Tag: spiritual practices (Page 4 of 4)

How Fluent are You?

January 11, 2012 /

I like to say I’m multi-lingual.  I don’t speak Chinese, or even Spanish, but when it comes to love languages I’m fluent.  Or at least “fluid” as my husband would say.  And even then I’m afraid it’s often a one-sided conversation.

You know the  5 love language idea that Gary Chapman popularized… How each of us have a primary way we feel most loved – through words of affirmation, receiving gifts, quality time, physical touch, or acts of service.  These are ways we express and interpret love.

The thing is I love them all.  I’m not picky.  I love receiving love in ALL these ways!

I came home the other day and my husband John had taken down both Christmas trees and TOTALLY cleaned out and reorganized our storage room.  I thought, “Boy, do I have an ear attuned to the love language of service!”  Best Christmas present EVER!!

I SO wish I had a “before” picture so you could appreciate the enormity of this gift!

It got me to thinking though…You know how when you know a little of a foreign language it’s easier to understand what people are saying than it is to actually speak the language?  That’s kind of how I feel.  I have a lot more receptive language than expressive language.

How does anyone become more fluent in a foreign language?  Practice, and spending time with those who speak it well, right?

What would happen if we practiced speaking the love language of those closest to us today?  What if we paid more attention to the people around us who speak “love” most fluently and learned from them?  Like learning in “Love Immersion School”.

How do you like to be loved?  What love language are you trying to become more fluent in speaking?  I’m going to try to work on the love language of service today.

When Practice becomes part of Personality

January 9, 2012 /

I am a pray-er, but I don’t feel like I’m a very good one.  I don’t keep lists of prayer requests for others or date them or write down answers when they come, and I feel guilty that I pray on the fly a lot.  I journal prayers, but honestly they’re pretty self-centered.  I think I’m inconsistent in my intensity and devotion to this practice.

The thing is, I (and I think many of us) compartmentalize prayer like a word picture I read recently.  We can see prayer like little squares of syrup in a waffle that don’t spill over into other squares.  Prayer is in this square, and not that square.  We’re precise.  We follow guidelines.  We’re, dare I say, stingy with our syrup.

But I have the privilege of being friends with a man who is a drench-the-waffle-with-syrup-and-have-it-sog-up-everything kind of pray-er.  Literally, anytime and ANYWHERE you see him, he will ALWAYS say, “Let’s have a prayer.”

He prayed with a friend of ours over the broccoli in the produce section of the grocery store.

He huddled up with a bunch of half-dressed men in the locker room at the pool.

He jogged around our church praying for us when we first moved to Minnesota.  He prays with our daughters in the middle of a crowded room, oblivious to all around him.

Here’s the thing.  For Roger, prayer is not a practice.  Not a thing he does.  Not a square of his waffle to be filled with syrup.  It’s part of who he is.

Who Roger is is someone deeply in love with, and constantly in conversation with his heavenly Father.

Roger shows me someone with…

  • A posture of humility and dependence on God.  Someone whose life says “My God is big and I am small.”
  • An understanding of the character of God – His power, mercy, sovereignty
  • A perspective – an affirmation of who is ultimately in control.

Roger is about 587 years old, so he’s had lots of time to practice, but I wonder, at what point did this practice become a part of his personality?

What are ways you’ve found to incorporate prayer into the moments of your day?

Come Holy Spirit

December 16, 2011 /

I was maneuvering laboriously, with stops and starts, through the parking lot at Costco yesterday, thinking for the millionth time that the Costco parking lot is either an outer ring of hell or a brilliant opportunity for spiritual formation.  

As I dodged runaway giant shopping carts,

and waited for pedestrians absorbed in studying their shopping lists wandering blindly in the middle of the row,

and backed up for cars in front of me that slammed on their brakes upon spying the tell-tale white reverse lights of a car vacating a parking place they could nab…

I thought of a spiritual practice a friend of mine has been advocating.  The simple practice of saying “Come Holy Spirit” throughout the day in situations like this that require patience, understanding, and discipline beyond me.

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One Thing that will Completely Change Your Day

December 2, 2011 /

This may sound weird, but I hope you’ll give it a chance.

What if, today, as a spiritual experiment for Spirit Stretch Friday, you tried praying for everyone you see.

I’ve told you I’m no spiritual giant (obviously!), and I don’t think I’m a good pray-er, but I’ve tried this and it’s powerful.  Formative.  Eye-opening.

You don’t know what to pray for strangers?  I know!  That’s the beauty of it!                    You have to be present,                                                                                                                               to try to enter in,                                                                                                                                to see each person as a beloved child of God as you pray for them.

Here’s what it might look like…

“Lord, please give that frazzled mom grace and patience as she deals with her kids in the grocery store.”

“For that man with the worried look, Father please give what only You can give – guidance, peace, resources.”

“Jesus remind that teenager that she is loved.  Please put someone in her life to encourage her today.”

“Lord, may this salesperson experience something of Your love and grace through me.”

When I’ve tried this, what I’ve found is that it really helps me to see each person more as I think Jesus might.  When people are rude (like someone who cuts me off in traffic), in order to pray for them it makes me think, “What must be going on in that person’s life that they are acting like that?”  It helps me to be more gracious and slow down a bit.

I know it sounds a little strange, but might you be willing to try this experiment today?    I’d love to hear what happens.

Christmas Elves, the Dark Side

November 25, 2011 /

I love Christmas.  Maybe too much.

I might have been a Christmas Elf in another life.  I’m one of those obnoxious people who starts playing Christmas music the day after Halloween (admit it, there are others reading this that are with me).

When we first moved to Minnesota two women invited me to join them in a Bible study.  Right before Christmas we met at the home of one of them.  Both said they weren’t going to decorate for Christmas because it was too much hassle.  We did not become friends and the Bible study lasted about as long as Christmas cookies that are anywhere near my husband.

But as much as I dive in with jolly holiday gusto, I fear that the activity of Christmas can hinder the activity of God in me.

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Fast Fail

October 31, 2011 /

My friend Sue is a master faster.  She once did a 40 day fast.  Honest.  With only fruit juice and a very understanding family.  And she’s a pray-er too.  She truly did the whole thing right!  I kind of  want to hate her but she’s just too nice.

I, on the other hand, am fasting FAILURE.  I am just hopeful that when Jesus said, “WHEN you fast…” He didn’t really mean it.  I’m hoping that Matthew 6 is the “I’m just kidding, you don’t really HAVE to pay attention to this” section of the Bible.  It doesn’t really count.  It was really just for “back then”…“yesteryear”…”days of yore”…

Last week our church challenged people to a kind-of sort-of fast.  Not the real kind where you don’t eat anything and don’t tell anyone and you go into your closet and just focus on prayer and God and pious thoughts.  Instead, this was a rice and beans fast.  For three days we were challenged to eat a cup of oatmeal for breakfast and a cup of beans and rice for the other two meals of the day with only water.  We were doing this for two reasons:  to experience what most of the world lives on, and to contribute the money we saved to World Vision’s program for alleviating hunger in Somalia.

Here’s what I learned:

  • I am a cranky pants baby when it comes to any sacrifice in this area (I’m probably a cranky pants baby when it comes to ANY sacrifice, but I’d rather not think about it).
  • I get sleepy, headaches, and lack attention without my morning coffee
  • Every commercial on T.V. is about food
The positives (and I write this grudgingly) were that I was acutely aware of praying for our sponsored children who may not know where their next meal is coming from.  And it made me so grateful for the amazing cornucopia of deliciousness that is available to us on a daily basis.  I also thought more about where our money goes on a daily basis.
But the bottom line?  I really hated doing this.  I wish Jesus was just down with feasting and not fasting.  But, He’s not, so I’m trying to get on board with this.
What about you?  Do you fast?  What do you wish wasn’t in the Bible?



Is There an App for That?

October 28, 2011 /

I’ve told you before that our family likes to make a game out of anything.  Especially if there are points involved.  Maggie is famous for making up these games and somehow she always ends up being the boss of the game in charge of giving and (more importantly) taking away points.

Anyway, when the girls were growing up we would work on memorizing scripture.  Now don’t get the idea this was any systematized, consistent, we’ve-now-memorized-the-whole-book-of-Leviticus kind of thing, but we would do a game from time to time at dinner where we would go around the table and each person would have to say one word of the verse we were memorizing in order.  Like this (Hebrews 12:11):

Laura: No

Maggie: discipline

Katy: seems

John: ?

Well the girls thought it was hysterical because the person who was the WORST at this game was John, the professional holy man.  He would have them cracking up as he tried to guess the most likely words like “LOVE!, JESUS!, GRACE!….RATS!”

Now, I’m NOT a good memorizer either, but I’ve been hugely impacted by the way God has used my meager attempts at putting His word in my heart, and it is uncanny how He’ll bring a verse to mind (or even part of a verse 🙂 at just the moment I need it encouraging (or convicting!) me.

Since Maggie’s birthday and since John finally gave up his $15 phone, we now all have Iphones.  I’ve discovered a verse memory app that I really like.  Just type in “Bible Memory Verses” in the search box of the App Store.  It’s free and it’s the first one that pops up (Woody Hays).  It has a lot of core verses already in-putted, but you can also add your own and can designate some as target verses you’re working on.  The coolest thing is that you can pull up a verse and touch “blanks” and it will create the verse with mostly blanks you need to fill in.  If you forget a word you can just tap the blank and it supplies the word your missing.

My big idea is to have our family all work on the same verse again.  The girls were all for it, (I think mostly cause they’re looking forward to us going around the table at Thanksgiving and watching John sweat.)  In order to get buy-in I told Katy she could pick the first one (although maybe I should ask John so he’d have a head start).   She chose Isaiah 58:11 for our first group effort.  You’re welcome to join us or pick your own verse and ask someone to join you.

For Spirit Stretch Friday I thought I’d pass this along in case you’d like to add the app.  Obviously you don’t need a special phone to find effective ways to memorize scripture!  Is there other technology that you’ve found helpful in following Jesus?

Stretching the Muscle of Right-Sizing

October 7, 2011 /

Last week I wrote that I’m going to try suggesting a creative spiritual experiment or resource on Fridays.  If you’re like me it’s easy to read stuff like this and say, “Oh, great idea.” but not do anything about it.  My hope is that a bunch of us in this blogommunity (yes, I made up that word) might say, “YES!  I’m in!” and give these things a shot over the weekend.  I asked Katy and Maggie for an idea of what to call this and Maggie suggested “Spirit Stretch Fridays”.  But if any of you have other ideas share!!  Put ’em in the comments!

Here in Minnesota we have had the most delightfully bizarre week of summer weather right smack dab in October when we’re usually worried about when the first snowfall is going to come.  I’ve written before (rather obnoxiously) about how I’m sure Jesus is just like me in my preference for being outdoors. http://laurac-payingattention.blogspot.com/2011/08/jesus-is-just-like-me.html

But in some ways I really do think getting outside and paying attention can be a spiritual discipline for a bunch of reasons:

– If spiritual exercises are about stretching spiritual muscles, this one stretches our humility, praise, and perspective muscles because we stop doing work and focus on something other than ourselves.

– It right-sizes our problems.  It’s a reminder that regardless of anything else, God is in control – the seasons will change, the leaves will fall, the snow will blow, everything will die, and then, miraculously, (especially in Minnesota it seems!) He’ll do it all over again!  Spring WILL arrive again and the earth will be reborn.

– It right-sizes US.  It’s a reminder of the power and majesty of God.  How big He is and how small I am.  The world will not stop spinning if I take time out to rest.

– It prompts us to do what we were made to do! “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Psalm 150:6

I love this quote:

Every human being is “formed to be a spectator of the created world and given eyes that he might be led to its Author by contemplating so beautiful a representation.” John Calvin

So maybe get outside and walk or ride or play this weekend!  Here’s a little of what I’ve been seeing…

Psalm 73:18 Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.  Praise be to His glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with His glory.

If you want to see some REALLY spectacular pictures, check out Anne Voskamp’s :

And don’t forget to post ideas you have!
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