Just the other night I sat down to do a journal activity. I began by writing at the top of the page \u201cGod, what\u2019s one thing you want to help me with this week?\u201d Then I sat in silence for a few moments and began to let myself write what I heard him saying. He responded with:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your story is not anyone else\u2019s story. I have not forgotten you or one moment of your story\u2026You are my daughter and I delight in your moments<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I often struggle with my own story. Many of my gifts feel boring. As I sit and listen to other people tell their stories, my life feels mundane and plain. I hear people tell of the wild things they did in their youth and mine seems lame. I find myself shying away from joining in when friends are recounting fun things that happened because I feel I can\u2019t compare. I then shut myself down.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as I sat there and listened to the Father tell me he delights <\/em>in my moments, He showed me myself from his perspective. In all of my moments, whether it was crocheting, making a spreadsheet, or obsessing over some new topic and digging up every piece of info on the internet I can find, my heart was flooded with this feeling of His adoration. It wasn\u2019t the big moments of accomplishment that he showed me. It wasn\u2019t the emotional moments he showed me. It was the everyday moments when I was just being me.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be so easy to compare our stories to other people\u2019s. But there is so much more to your story than you know. Comparing your story to someone else\u2019s only kills true connection. Maybe your experience seems less exciting, or maybe it\u2019s more painful. But it\u2019s your story. There are things that happened to you that are not okay.\u00a0 There are things that happened that are amazing, and things that are just plain boring. But each of these moments are the building blocks of your experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I have been walking this journey of emotionally healthy spirituality, I\u2019m learning to cherish my story. I\u2019m learning to grieve my story where it needs to be grieved. I\u2019m learning to celebrate my story. I\u2019m learning to share my story without apology. And I am continually asking Jesus where he was in each moment of my story, letting him renew my memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crazy thing is this has given me so much more capacity to empathize, enjoy, or be present\u00a0 with other people\u2019s stories. Remember what I said earlier, comparison kills connection. When we are focusing on how we can compare, compete, and one-up a story we are not connecting with the person who is sharing with us. If we are feeling shame about our own stories we cannot engage with others as they share their story.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your story is precious. Ask Jesus what he thinks about your story and let him show you His perspective. You will probably be surprised by the moments he shows you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just the other night I sat down to do a journal activity. I began by writing at the top of the page \u201cGod, what\u2019s one\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":572,"featured_media":418793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":170,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,87],"tags":[265,266,205],"class_list":["post-418771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-and-ministry","category-encouragement","tag-comparison","tag-compete","tag-delight",""],"blockli_fields":{"post_type":"","post_action":"","post_type_icon":"","background_image":""},"bb_bookmark":{"bookmark_id":0,"is_bookmarked":false,"bookmark_date":0},"app_bookmark":{"bookmark_id":0,"is_bookmarked":false,"bookmark_date":0},"comments_count":"1","content_native":[{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Just the other night I sat down to do a journal activity. I began by writing at the top of the page \u201cGod, what\u2019s one thing you want to help me with this week?\u201d Then I sat in silence for a few moments and began to let myself write what I heard him saying. He responded with: <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Just the other night I sat down to do a journal activity. I began by writing at the top of the page \u201cGod, what\u2019s one thing you want to help me with this week?\u201d Then I sat in silence for a few moments and began to let myself write what I heard him saying. He responded with: "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Your story is not anyone else's story. I have not forgotten you or one moment of your story\u2026You are my daughter and I delight in your moments<\/em>.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Your story is not anyone else's story. I have not forgotten you or one moment of your story\u2026You are my daughter and I delight in your moments<\/em>."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" I often struggle with my own story. Many of my gifts feel boring. As I sit and listen to other people tell their stories, my life feels mundane and plain. I hear people tell of the wild things they did in their youth and mine seems lame. I find myself shying away from joining in when friends are recounting fun things that happened because I feel I can\u2019t compare. I then shut myself down. <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"I often struggle with my own story. Many of my gifts feel boring. As I sit and listen to other people tell their stories, my life feels mundane and plain. I hear people tell of the wild things they did in their youth and mine seems lame. I find myself shying away from joining in when friends are recounting fun things that happened because I feel I can\u2019t compare. I then shut myself down. "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" But as I sat there and listened to the Father tell me he delights <\/em>in my moments, He showed me myself from his perspective. In all of my moments, whether it was crocheting, making a spreadsheet, or obsessing over some new topic and digging up every piece of info on the internet I can find, my heart was flooded with this feeling of His adoration. It wasn\u2019t the big moments of accomplishment that he showed me. It wasn\u2019t the emotional moments he showed me. It was the everyday moments when I was just being me. <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"But as I sat there and listened to the Father tell me he delights <\/em>in my moments, He showed me myself from his perspective. In all of my moments, whether it was crocheting, making a spreadsheet, or obsessing over some new topic and digging up every piece of info on the internet I can find, my heart was flooded with this feeling of His adoration. It wasn\u2019t the big moments of accomplishment that he showed me. It wasn\u2019t the emotional moments he showed me. It was the everyday moments when I was just being me. "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" It can be so easy to compare our stories to other people\u2019s. But there is so much more to your story than you know. Comparing your story to someone else\u2019s only kills true connection. Maybe your experience seems less exciting, or maybe it's more painful. But it's your story. There are things that happened to you that are not okay. There are things that happened that are amazing, and things that are just plain boring. But each of these moments are the building blocks of your experience. <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"It can be so easy to compare our stories to other people\u2019s. But there is so much more to your story than you know. Comparing your story to someone else\u2019s only kills true connection. Maybe your experience seems less exciting, or maybe it's more painful. But it's your story. There are things that happened to you that are not okay. There are things that happened that are amazing, and things that are just plain boring. But each of these moments are the building blocks of your experience. "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" As I have been walking this journey of emotionally healthy spirituality, I'm learning to cherish my story. I\u2019m learning to grieve my story where it needs to be grieved. I\u2019m learning to celebrate my story. I\u2019m learning to share my story without apology. And I am continually asking Jesus where he was in each moment of my story, letting him renew my memories. <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"As I have been walking this journey of emotionally healthy spirituality, I'm learning to cherish my story. I\u2019m learning to grieve my story where it needs to be grieved. I\u2019m learning to celebrate my story. I\u2019m learning to share my story without apology. And I am continually asking Jesus where he was in each moment of my story, letting him renew my memories. "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" The crazy thing is this has given me so much more capacity to empathize, enjoy, or be present\u00a0 with other people\u2019s stories. Remember what I said earlier, comparison kills connection. When we are focusing on how we can compare, compete, and one-up a story we are not connecting with the person who is sharing with us. If we are feeling shame about our own stories we cannot engage with others as they share their story.\u00a0<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"The crazy thing is this has given me so much more capacity to empathize, enjoy, or be present\u00a0 with other people\u2019s stories. Remember what I said earlier, comparison kills connection. When we are focusing on how we can compare, compete, and one-up a story we are not connecting with the person who is sharing with us. If we are feeling shame about our own stories we cannot engage with others as they share their story.\u00a0"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Your story is precious. Ask Jesus what he thinks about your story and let him show you His perspective. You will probably be surprised by the moments he shows you.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Your story is precious. Ask Jesus what he thinks about your story and let him show you His perspective. You will probably be surprised by the moments he shows you."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}}],"app_access":{"can_access":true,"restrict_message":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/572"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}