in·teg·ri·ty
noun |1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. 2. the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire. 3. a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship's hull.
“Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves”
“Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves”
A brief but important idea for this week-
I need to have more integrity in my life in order to become more intuned with God. In other words, if I am out of integrity or not responsible for certain parts of my life, I will start to let those things control/consume me and therefore do a worse job on focusing on God and the big picture. My three areas I am going to focus on are:Spending
Budgeting Time
Personal Health
So what do I mean by stay in integrity and be responsible for? In my case, I mean managing these three areas of my life effectively so that they do not manage me. An example of how I do not effectively manage one of these follows:
Many people in my life tell me I budget too many things into my schedule. I often ignore them and get a thrill out of maintaining a fast pace in life. I like to push the limit and see how much I can do in a week. However, I end up committing to too many things and running myself very thin some weeks. I put myself in a situation where I struggle to say no to anything. By being so busy, I end up straining relationships, worrying others about my well being, not following through on everything I said I would do. I also end up worrying myself, and not taking the time to focus on myself- which in turn affects my ability to relate to the world, God, others.
Make Sense? I believe that if I get these things in order, it will allow them to be background parts of my lifestyle rather than logistics blurring my vision. This will open up the space for me to better percieve the world, relate to others and listen to God and paths he might point me down I would have not noticed before in my current flurry and preoccupation.
What are things in your life that have control over you? What are the things that cause you to focus inward instead of outward and on your faith? Might be certain subconscious fears, certain assumptions or cynicisms you have. Or it could be as simple as you might be putting something else first. The ones we always hear about are Sex, Alcohol and Money. But what about just the simple little things? The habits and patterns. Ask yourself it in this way- what are the things you believe you need in life? Maybe that will provide some answers about what gets in the way.
Also, just think, what if we all did a good job of taking care of ourselves? If we were integrity with ourselves? We would be making a difference in the world just by taking care of our own mess! Like this quote below:
| “Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.” | |
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Here are ways I am going to tackle my three areas in the next week/month in order to clear up my personal integrity in these three areas:
1) For the month Save 20% and give 10% of my net income
2) Say no to at least 1 thing a day. Budget a couple free time hours each week
3) Average 8 hours of sleep per night. Eat a serving of veggies with 2 meals a day
maybe those things will open up new doors to being responsible for these areas as well. We shall see. I hope to see a new window in this clearing to becoming closer to God.
I think these are great goals to concentrate on, particularly in your stage of life when you can just truly concentrate on who you are and what you need. It is important to be sure of these things, to take care of yourself before you hit a different stage of life where you are caring for someone else beyond yourself (marriage) and then one day, a child or children. When you know who you are and what you need you are so much better able to care for others and really give completely of yourself! I like the sleep, free time, and veggies goal--I could use more of each in my daily habits!! For me, and this is the choice I've made by having kids--my kids lives, needs, and wants have almost complete control over all aspects of life!
ReplyDeleteThere are many good ways to spend time, but some of them may conflict with the best way to spend your time. I must admit that this is difficult to manage at every stage in life! As Peter mentions, life tends to become more complicated when you are responsible for others beside yourself. Because God calls us to love as our highest value, finding time to invest lovingly in others ends up trumping other activities we might personally enjoy. But that is just how it must be; we are called to come out of ourselves in self-giving service and love for others. That will almost always take up more time than we have to give!
ReplyDeleteI really like your goals of tithing and saving 20% of your income. Glenn and I have practised this, and this is good stewardship of your resources (which really belong to God).