Permission Granted
I am often asked, “What kind of devotional should I get or read to get started with my prayer life?” Most people develop a prayer or devotional life based on the teachings or perceptions of our family of origin or our faith community’s perspective. Not many people are aware of how their spiritual disciplines or practices are formed. Rarely, do we realize that our early developmental stages have a strange way of impacting our adult lives. We have this strange tendency to base many of our adult decisions on the experiences we had as we were being shaped and formed.
In many instances, the messages we heard, believed and lived into, have not been things that pushed us into our purpose nor caused us to feel like we could really achieve in places that are outside of those said experiences. When we begin to grow spiritually, we sometimes put a limit on our personal expectations because we are trying to measure up or get it right based on what we heard early in life. We are playing messages of old and they have crippled us in our ability to be open spiritually.
Today, I invite you to give yourself permission to start where you are. I invite you to not compare your spiritual journey to anyone else’s. I invite you to a place where you accept that we are all heading in the same direction; even as we are on what I will call, a collective individual journey. We are all being invited into a deeper relationship with the Lord, which means we are all in this together. Now is the time to give our individual selves permission to do it our way and know that there is no right or wrong way to have personal devotions.
It may be a 5-minute devotional and prayer for you, while your sister or brother may be doing 30-60 minutes time in devotions and prayer. We do not gain anything by attempting to measure our spiritual walk according to how someone else is walking. Slow down! Breathe! Breathe again! Ask the Lord to show you where to start and give yourself permission to take your first step by reading a scripture, or saying “Lord Help”, or doing some deep breathing and being still. Whatever road you take, know that you are okay and that your spiritual muscles will be strengthened the more you use them. Permission granted! You are on the right path because it is yours!!!
Take good care of you!
Dr. Lisa
