Month / March 2020

by Karen Twinem

Resource: “The Mindful Kind”

“You are making yourself miserable, and you are the only one who can stop it.”

Rachael Kable, “The Mindful Kind”

Rachael Kable, author of “The Mindful Kind” and host of “The Mindful Kind” podcast, may be young, but she is wise.

The host of the No. 1 mindfulness podcast, she has written an excellent guidebook for anyone interested in mindfulness. You’ll refer to it again and again. I’m planning to keep a copy on my Kindle app on the my phone.

For example, she suggests a new habit: Use the feeling of stress as a signal to do a mindfulness exercise.

Rachael is an Australian who sounds and looks fairly young. Sometimes her examples from her own life reflect a limited … so far … life experience. But she does have many wonderful options for introducing awareness and intention in many aspects of life, both in the book and the podcast. At the book’s conclusion, she suggests doing one new activity in the book a week to eventually build a great repertoire of responses to keep it on task.

Rachael never discusses religion. Her ideas are suitable for any Christian to try. Subscribe to the podcast and buy the book. You’ll be glad you did.

by Karen Twinem

Affirmations to Change Your Mind

We are asked to keep our thoughts pure, but our minds are often racing in the other direction. Affirmations are a mindful Christian approach to reining in your thoughts when you notice negativity, unrighteous anger and other bad attitudes.

Use them as a script to turn around your thinking, repeating as needed. Here’s a few affirmations to use:

  • Let compassion lead me.
  • Holy Spirit, speak through me.
  • I choose to renew my mind.
  • Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.

Deliberating breaking into your thinking pattern will help.

by Karen Twinem

The Kind of Lent God Wants

Giving up things – from Facebook to coffee – is a classic part of participating in Lent. This year, great suggestions from Pope Francis are on social media:

  • Fast from hurting words and say kind words.
  • Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
  • Fast from anger and be filled with patience.
  • Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
  • Fast from worries and trust in God.
  • Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.
  • Fast from pressures and be prayerful.
  • Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy.
  • Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.
  • Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
  • Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.

Even with these wonderful ideas, God calls for fasting that helps people:

Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: Say to all the people in the land and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and the seventh month these 70 years, was it really for me that you fasted? … Thus says the Lord of hosts: Judge with true justice, and show kindness and compassion toward each other. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the resident alien or the poor; do not plot evil against one another in your hearts.

Zechariah 7:4-5, 9-10

Similar requests for fasting are in Isaiah:

“Is this what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Isaiah 58: 5b-7

I think the Lord is serious. Lent is a good time for us to contemplate what we can do to make that happen.

by Karen Twinem

What’s God Up To?

When God does or allows the unexpected, our reactions can range from puzzlement to tears to shock to rage. What’s a good way to move through the initial feelings back into trust?

After all, God is good. He loves us dearly and wants what is best for us, even if it’s not pleasant at the time. God continues to reveal Himself to us even when we are perplexed.

I know a person who responds to any surprise with the same question: I wonder what God is up to? I think that’s a great way to move ourselves away from fear to trust. It sets us up to believe that God is in the situation and is working. We just need to wait to see what happens next.