dailydatewithgod

Our human capacity for kindness is tremendous!  If ever there is a doubt in my mind I simply need to look to the courageous actions of people who survive natural disasters or visit with the nurses at the hospital in which I work.  It is there within all of us. Sometimes, however we have a hard time providing that same kindness to ourselves.  The greatest kindness I can bestow upon myself is to be mindful of how I speak to myself.  I can be extremely harsh with the way that I speak to myself. When I realize that I would not be friends with someone who spoke to me that way, I can acknowledge the inadequacy of doing so.  It is an old fixed idea that somehow being hard on myself will motivate me to change or act differently, but it has never done so effectively and caused lasting change.  I come up short when I try to list the number of times that shaming was effective in causing positive change in my life.  Yet, like most fixed ideas there is a patterned groove in my brain that leans that direction. The quality of mercy that I see others engage in gives me courage that even when my thoughts are not there, I can act in contradiction to my thoughts.  That contradictory action then creates a new experience which shifts the pathways in my brain.  I ask God for help not to act based on my thoughts, but based on God’s thoughts.  Lord, show me what mercy looks like here.  God, grant me the courage to actpast my old patterned thoughts so they may shift into God-patterned thoughts.  My prayer for us today is that in the moments of merciless thoughts towards ourselves or others we lift our eyes to witness the merciful actions that are all around us and a testament to our God-like capabilities.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen