10
Feb

What’s Your Rule of Life?

woman reading

You read that post title right. I didn’t goof and use the wrong preposition–I meant Rule of Life, the totality of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly spiritual practices that Christians decide to undertake to intentionally develop a closer relationship to God. In Heartpaths one of our first tasks was to develop our own Rule of Life.

Many famous people, including Martin Luther King, Jr. had their own Rule of Life. Based on his example alone, it’s worth consideration! Here is my Rule of Life:

  1. Read something spiritual every day. (That can be Bible verses, a chapter from a book on spirituality, an internet posting, or Heartpaths assignments.
  2. Pray for 20 minutes every day. (This usually centers around whichever prayer practice we’re studying in Heartpaths right now, but I do so silently.)
  3. Journal for 20 minutes every day. (I journal about my experience during prayer as if I’m a reporter.)
  4. Juice fast once a week. (No one is more surprised by this than me!)
  5. Meet with my spiritual director once a month.

 

I’m considering adding others to this, but for now, I’m lucky if I accomplish this as regularly as I would like! And this is acceptable for Rules of Life. Our life circumstances change as we journey through life, so we may need to tweak our spiritual practices from time to time.

What is the result of such intention? I now crave my reading, praying and writing time! And I don’t really get hungry on the day I juice fast. (Fasting before almost always gave me a migraine–so far–zero migraines!) My spiritual director is so helpful in giving me insights about all aspects of my life. And God has been pretty regularly blowing my mind…in really cool ways.

Point to Ponder 1: Out of the following, which could you already adapt into your life pretty regularly: spiritual reading, praying, worshiping, observing the Sabbath, fasting, self-examination, confession, awareness, meeting with a spiritual director or pastor, and/or hospitality? Could you do that as your practice for Lent?

Point to Ponder 2: Of the practices listed in # 1, which ones would be a stretch for you right now? Why? Life circumstances? Resistance? A lack of knowledge about it? Some spiritual practices were far different than I originally presumed. How about reading about them in Soul Feast first? Sometimes they are a stretch because that is exactly where we need to grow in order to be closer to God!

Point to Ponder 3: What might be the “rewards” for you if you were to adopt some of the practices listed above? Post these to a place you pass every day and prayerfully consider making at least two practices the beginning of your own Rule of Life! Ash Wednesday is the perfect day to begin! Let me know how it goes by commenting on this post–I’m rooting for you!

Friday’s Post: Bones…

You Might Also Like: Time is to Love as Wind is to Fire and Your Body May Need a Diet, but Your Soul May Need a Feast

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2016 at 11:00 am and is filed under God stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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