Discipline: One Word review for 2013

One article I read said to “…look up by asking God for your word and listening. Don’t stress about your word. Receive it from your maker.” In looking back over 2013 I realized that even after getting the word, I didn’t need to stress. My Maker knew exactly how to orchestrate events to bring about the growth I needed in my OneWord365 of DISCIPLINE. Most of it happened in community, being inspired by or initiated by people in my life.

The first I wrote about in a previous blog where a friend’s Facebook post inspired me to download a gratefulness app. What a great discipline that’s been in beginning to retrain the neural networks of my brain. Partway through the year, I began to read and digest Ann VosKamp’s book ‘one thousand gifts’. She says this discipline only comes with practice and that it is a practice of the eyes. The remedy for ingratitude is in the retina. We don’t have to change what we see. Only the way we see. So basically, she’s saying that while my situation may not change, the way I view it will change as I practice being grateful. It’s been fun at times to work at entering all that I’m grateful for into my app. At other times it’s been a struggle to see something to be grateful for in the midst of difficulties. But I love how my mind is beginning to note these things and get excited about remembering to enter it onto my daily list.

Secondly, in March a friend asked me if I would do a Whole30 clean eating time with her. Since being unwell from 2006 to 2008 my body had been letting me know that there were certain foods I could not handle well anymore. While I tried to stay away from those foods, this invitation from my friend was just what I needed to discipline myself in these areas. The mutual support and encouragement helped me stay on course. I chose to stay on the Paleo eating plan even after 30 days because I do so much better on it mentally, emotionally and physically. I see it as a way of life. (Since I do better emotionally on this plan it has also helped me in my gratefulness discipline.) For the past month I’ve gotten a little off plan but have gone back to strict clean eating as of the beginning of 2014!

I’ve also been disciplining myself to go more to God’s Word, the Bible. I’m thankful to be attending a church where the Pastor regularly directs us to it and where Bibles are provided for those that do not have one. If I’m reading a book or a daily devotional it’s easy to skip over the scripture references. I so appreciate good writers but going directly to those biblical references helps me to hear directly from God in the area that the author is writing about.

There are other areas but these are the key ones that have contributed my growth in Discipline this past year.

Now, on to my One Word for 2014...

Too Holy to touch?

A woman that I know recently bought The Message version of the Bible. She’s been growing spiritually and has been excited about practicing the presence of Jesus in all aspects of her life. She wondered this week about the fact that she has difficulty actually opening the Bible and reading in it. In fact, seeing it on her bedside stand intimidated her so she hid it in the drawer. She was sad about this but couldn’t figure out why this was so.

I mentioned to her that I’d written a blog awhile ago about how much my old Bible has become an old friend that I cannot part with because it’s underlinings tell the story of my journey with God. Fear struck into her at the thought of marking the Bible…as though this ‘book’ is too sacred to mark up. This kind of reaction had not even occurred to me when I wrote the post but I can fully understand where it came from for her.

As we spoke further she realized that this belief is related to her upbringing…similar to how she thought in the past that she couldn’t talk to God directly, that she had to go through a priest. Prior to this, she would have said that her religious background played very little of a role in her life but this conversation made her realize that it had in fact impacted her greatly. Her reaction to my revelation about my Bible brought back some memories for her.

As a child she was an altar girl in her church…

The Bible was big…it was gold…it had its own altar. The altar girls washed their hands thoroughly before even going anywhere near it. It got ‘incensed’ and was put in a little window until it was opened by the father. One didn’t just put it on ones lap and flip through it. It needed a shrine.

As she spoke she realized that this is why the sight of her Bible beside her bed intimidates her. This scene plays in the back of her mind when she sees it there. Then she doesn’t feel worthy to go near it, much less to read it on her own. She wonders how she got this far in life without the realization that the Bible is a book that anyone can touch and be near…and read…without the pomp and circumstance. She is intrigued by the realization of this long held belief and is still processing it.

The thought of marking it up still is not something that she can picture herself doing in the near future.

I’ve had the privilege of watching her grow in her personal relationship with God over the past year, and I’ve listened to how much she enjoys recognizing His presence in every detail of her life. So I have no doubt that she will soon hold The Message on her lap and regularly read it for herself since this is her desire. I look forward to hearing about how the Holy Spirit breathes life into the words of this 'book' for her...

An Old Friend

In 1977 I bought an NASB (New American Standard Bible) while in Bible school. Now in 2011, the pages are disengaging from their binding faster than I can tape them and I’ve purchased a leather cover to hide how worn the original is. But no matter how tattered it is, I have difficulty reading only from the new Bible that I purchased a few years ago.

This old Bible has red markings at certain verses. It has blue and pencil markings at others. At various places it has dates noted in the margins...dates that remind me of what the LORD was teaching me at that part of my journey.

Someone posted a Psalm today and I realized that I could write a whole chapter of my life just based on the various dates that were written in the margins of that particular place in the Bible.

I like my new Bible, it keeps my eyes from being drawn to only those verses that have been underlined or dated. But my old Bible is like an old friend…it tells the story of my life. The story of my spiritual journey.