From Meditation to Prayer

Can anyone else NOT believe it is already April?? I can't. This school year is just flying by! My year through the spiritual disciplines is also flying by! I am halfway through my year of transformation! :) I feel like I've entered a little slump the past few months in keeping up with this blog, but I hoping to get back on track!

March was Meditation month and though I didn't practice meditation as much as I had hoped, I feel like I got a lot out of studying it and attempting to practice it. Meditation was always a mystery to me and I generally saw it as a mystical religious practice of intense concentration. It seemed to difficult for me to even attempt. And honestly, I didn't see it as a "Christian thing."

Foster addressed the difference of Eastern and Christian meditation by saying that "eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind." (p. 20) This encouraged me because the idea of clearing my mind completely seemed incredibly too difficult. I am constantly battling an over-thinking brain. However, even though my goal in meditation is to fill the mind, it doesn't mean fill it with worries and to-do lists. Foster describes Christian meditation as "the ability to hear God's voice and obey his word" (p.17) and "in meditation we are growing into...a familiar friendship with Jesus." (p.19) Foster also mentions attachment and detachment saying we must work at "the detachment from the confusion all around us in order to have a richer attachment to God." (p. 21) I am constantly striving to better hear God's voice. One of my greatest struggles is "blocking" God out except in times of great distress and worry. My attitude was If I'm doing OK, I don't really feel like praying. Practicing meditation would not only deepen my intimacy with God, but it would prepare me for those dark times of despair ahead of time instead of scrambling to the surface when I feel as if I'm drowning.

One of my goals in meditation was to really meditate on the relationships I share with people in my family, circle of friends and workplace. It was really interesting to take a step back and think about how and why I interact with others the way I do and to also step into their shoes and try to understand why and how they may act toward me. I think it's a great exercise in helping you treat others with kindness and patience when you otherwise might want to bite their head off! ;-)

April is Prayer month and I am hoping to work more on meditation along with prayer. I will go into more detail about what I have learned about prayer at the end of the month, but here are my goals:

1. Choose a person/couple to pray for intentionally each day of the week (ex. Pray for Bob on Sundays, Lisa on Mondays, Ken and Tina on Tuesdays, etc.) leaving Saturdays free to pray for someone I feel led to pray for. I have chosen my 6 people/couples and I will start on Sunday! I hope I can continue to do this after April. I am such a calendar/to-do list person and I think this will help me be more consistent in my intercessory prayer.

2. Practice "Flash prayers" more intentionally - praying for the needs of others as you notice them.

3. Write in my prayer/gratitude journal at least twice a week (I have been doing once a week, but it often turns into once a month! Trying to be better about that....)

As always, thanks for reading friends!

BB 11

BIG BEND TRIP 2011 (aka BB 11)

Since I can't get on facebook (I will still share my post through facebook...but don't worry, I won't get sucked in to looking around tee hee), I thought I'd share some photos of my Big Bend trip with Sarah on my blog. I am not a big camper, in fact, before college, I would have NEVER gone camping, but this was one of the best trips I have gone on. I had a fantastic time!

Our first hike (Window View) was 5.6 miles round trip! It led us to this beautiful view between two mountains. Below is the lovely Sarah posing at the view. How does she look so beautiful even after a long hike? Who knows! :)

The next day Sarah tricked...I mean encouraged me to push myself and do a 12.6 mile hike. We got up before sunrise and began our hike as the sun was coming up. Unlike the day before where we went down and then back up, this hike began going uphill. It was very steep and it was INCREDIBLY hard. I was way behind Sarah for most of it. I really tried to use this time to meditate and pray to God, but it was very hard as I was so focused on the pain and wanting to be done. Here is me and Sarah at the beginning of our hike, ready to go! I am so blessed to have her as a best friend. I cannot believe I got to spend the whole week with her. :) She is so wonderful and she pushes me to change and become a better person.

The 6 miles up to the South Rim were long and hard, but the view was DEFINITELY worth it (picture below). I couldn't believe I was still in Texas. It was amazing. God's creation is AMAZING! This picture doesn't do it justice. I wish we could have stayed up there longer, but there was still another 6 miles down to go. We made it back down in one piece, but BOY did I hurt everywhere. I still hurt a little now....but I guess no pain, no gain, right? :)

One of my favorite things about camping was waking up when (or before ) the sun rises and going to sleep when the sun sets. And boy, was the sky beautiful. This is a picture of a sun set our second night at Big Bend. I wish I could have captured what the night sky looked like: filled with stars that were bright and all over the place. It was breathtaking!

Hope you enjoyed the pics! I had a wonderful time and I am in even MORE awe of God's creation. What a marvelous Creator He is!

Goals for Meditation

March is the month of meditation! Boy, this is the perfect month to be focusing on that. I have half the month off because of Spring Break so I have plenty of time to push away my busy world and focus on God. I'm also going camping with my best friend next week so I will be pushing away even MORE of my busy world. :)

Here are my goals this month:

1. Meditate at least once a week on the scriptures I have memorized so far this year. Sarah and I have started memorizing 1-2 verses a month so I want to review them and meditate on them this month. My verses are 2 Timothy 1:7, Romans 8:26, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 34:1, John 15:5

2. Meditate on God's creation - that's where the camping comes in. :)

3. Start the day with meditation . Once I go back to work, instead of being on the computer so much in the morning, I want to start my day with Bible reading and a short meditation. I'm giving up facebook for Lent so that should HELP a lot! :) The main thing I want to focus on in these meditations is CONFIDENCE. I have been feeling less confident in myself lately and I want to focus myself on my identity in Christ.

4. Meditate on people - pay attention to others and myself. I want to really think about how and why I treat others the way I do.

I'll let you know how it goes at the end of the month and what all I have learned from Foster. As always, thanks for reading!! :)