God and I had a heart to heart and He told me ‘Get back to the basics!’
What that means for ME (as it will be different for YOU) is I need to truly focus on what fuels my journey. Prayer.
I was preparing for a talk I’ll be doing at Steubenville this weekend and what is interesting is I’ve already given this talk in June (and truly many times before that as well) but for some reason I was called to look over my outline and allow it to soak in for me. Awe, what a concept! 😉 You see, I was guided years ago as I began to be asked to ‘speak’ that I should first see what it is that God is wanting me to learn and then build upon that as an outline. I hold true to this method with every single talk I give, but I’ll be honest, sometimes when you are asked to give the same talk over and over again the ‘personal lesson’ seems to fall by the wayside (when in reality there are so many different lessons that God intertwines in one talk but I’ve just gotten lazy and stubborn). This is true not just for ‘talks’ but everything we enc0unter on a day to day basis.
The lesson will change because we are growing (or we hope to be growing) and maturing in our faith! And even though I feel that I’ve grown in so many ways in regards to my prayer life it hit me like a ton of bricks today that I miss when I was ‘new’ on my faith journey and would just sit with God in the morning, unsure of what to say, not wanting to say the rosary because it seemed so monotonous and so I allowed myself to journal and just ‘be’ with God on a daily basis. I miss that quiet time. I still have quiet time now, but I’m saying the rosary (WHICH I ADORE AND LOVE AND WILL NOT ALLOW IT TO FALL TO THE WAYSIDE) but I have replaced that cherished ‘intimate’ time with God.
It’s just like in a marriage when you stop talking to your partner. Even though you are in the same household supporting one another, raising a family and even praying together, unless you take that time to be back to the basics – back to just the two of you and talking about your day, your accomplishments, your disappointments and hopes and dreams then the fuel that keeps the flame burning dies down and soon the flame is merely a pilot light waiting to be reignited.
To be honest, I’m excited! And I’m grateful to God for allowing me to see that the enemy is tricky and how quickly my love for routine could be turned into that tiny sliver of opportunity for him.
Blessings
Shannon