Wednesday, August 6, 2014

DOSE: For those that glory in The Lord as their creator and guide

Wrote this post Tuesday PM.  After that, felt like the weight of the world had been removed from my shoulders.  Soon after, got out my new set of hangers and out three sets of work clothes in the closet.  Started out my AM with Creighton University's Daily Reflections, Rob got up and started his day at 7:30 AM (very unusual) and I got to work on the new earlier schedule that I have been trying to start for three weeks!  Lots of progress since the insights in the post below!  Getting off to a good start!

Spoiler Warning: Religious content below.
Collect for this week.
As I was preparing to write this week's message, I turned to  Creighton  University's Daily Reflections page to see what The Lord had to say.  Tears came to my eyes.  Here I am starting up my blog again and searching for ways to open the dialog on the Discipline of Self-Esteem. The central principal of DOSE is that if we seek to become the person God created us to be, then everything else falls into place.

Then I read this collect: That for those who glory in you as their Creator and Guide, you may restore what you have created and keep safe what you have restored.  To really live the DOSE, you must first know yourself as the person God created you to be.  And to find that person, you need to let yourself be lead by God. Wherever that leads- no matter what the price.  And if you do that,  then God will restore you to become the person that He has created and then keep that restoration safe.  

Then I went to the readings and the next thing I read is: Write down all the words I have spoken to you in a book (Is this a hint?).  And the readings are all about Faith and restoration.

The actual reflection is the kicker.  It's all that I've been thinking about getting ready to write today.

You see, I started out on this journey many years ago when I heard a talk at a woman's conference.  The speaker was a recovering cocaine-addicted mother who banded together with other recovering cocaine-addicted mothers for support for their mutual recovery.  Everyone contributed whatever they could to meeting the needs of the other mothers.  And what they discovered as they got into the process was that everyone had some special unique gift to give to their world that they only discovered as they went about the business of recovery.  And the discovery of this gift was a tremendous asset in the recovery process- they saw their own true worth- the person that God created
them to become.

When I first discovered DOSE as a concept, letting God be my Guide was second nature.  I didn't have a choice back then.  My life had become such a mess that the only way to make anything work was to listen for guidance, take a step in that direction, then listen again and take the next step.  The things I wrote back then made sense for the person I was back then.  And what made sense back then was taking care of myself- in the plane emergency drills they tell you to put the mask on for yourself first.  That made everything else fall into place.  But as time went on, taking care of myself was not working anymore- DOSE was falling apart for me, the weight came back on, CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) was reigning, and I was feeling that there was something fundamentally wrong with DOSE.  I stopped writing.  I knew that the person that was created to be was a writer, but I stopped writing anyway.  I waited to be inspired and inspiration never came.

So today, I decided to seek inspiration- and that lead me to understand that the way I'd been expressing DOSE was a little backward.  I felt that if you took care of yourself, then you would discover the person God meant you to become- and if you would be true to yourself- then everything would fall into place.  But in reality- you need to GLORY in God as your Creator and Guide first.  Then He will restore you to be the person that he created- then you will discover the glory of that creation which is a true sense of self-esteem- and then God will keep safe the DOSE that He restored.

But just like Peter in the sea.  The way to keep walking on the water is to keep following your Lord and your Guide.

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