Monday, September 20, 2010

God's Identity, Changing my Priorities

It is amazing how God speaks to us. . . I love it when things start lining up that are knocking on your heart (even though I wish he was more direct sometimes). As a new doc in my practice, I am still developing who "my" patients are- those patients who would say I'm their doctor, instead of that I was the one they saw last. Because of this and the nature of the practice, I am seeing quite a few physicals- anywhere from 2-8 in a day. And the vast majority of the physicals are women aged 30-55. So many of them come in wanting to know why they can't sleep, can't lose weight, etc. I ask most of them what they do for themselves. Many can't tell me. And most start crying when I start to talk about how as women, moms, wives, etc. we tend to do for everyone else 1st, and leave the leftovers for us. Interestingly enough, I think this is true spiritually also, we do everything on our "to-do" list 1st, leaving time for God rushed, and time for ourselves nonexistent. I am no exception in this. I am good about reading a devotion daily, working out 3-5 times a week, and picking up a book to read, but in general, I am not great at sitting down (as I type this I am standing ha!) and spending time with God refreshing me. The interesting thing is that most of our families could care less if our houses are clean (our standard of clean), or if the meal came from a box or from scratch. And yet, many of us, me included, place high standards on getting this all done, so that we collapse into bed at night exhausted not able to identify what we did to refresh ourselves that day. As a doc, I can give you a whole list of things this can do to you, but I won't. Mainly, I'm just working on it myself. I tend to be a perfectionist on many things, and have even struggled today with making sure I'm accomplishing everything on my "to-do" list today. But I started reading this really great book today, and I feel like God is really trying to work at changing my priorities and my to do list. One quote from the book (Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl) "If Satan can use our everyday experiences, both big and small, to cripple our true identity, [in Christ] then he render's God's people totally ineffective for the kingdom of Christ." I like it. I'm going to try and focus on what really matters, where my identity really lies, taking time for myself, and not beating myself up for not packing socks for a recent camping trip (Thanks Ran), or showing up to the park without shoes for my son (Thanks Jenna), or having my husband have to wait til 9 p.m. to eat dinner some nights (Thanks Babe) but focusing on spending more time with God, in his relaxing presence!


My true priorities- the boys (driving the project car!)

Too cute- he is not potty trained, but is sitting on the potty chair, diaper on, reading "How to Potty Train in a Day" :)




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