Self-advice

By joannsblog2016 on January 17, 2021 • ( 1 )

“Speak, for your servant is listening.”
1 Samuel 3:10

Today’s reading was from 1 Samuel 3, when God calls out to Samuel multiple times and he doesn’t recognize that it is God calling until Eli tells him to answer, “speak, for your servant is listening.”

Boy, is that not the crux of discernment, to just surrender and say “speak, for your servant is listening.”

About a week ago, my youngest daughter bought a planner/journal. She was telling me she had to go write her “self-advice.” I had one of those looks like what in the world are you talking about, “SELF-ADVICE.” I paused and thought about what she said. What self-advice would I have?

I am the worst when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. I don’t even attempt them anymore. Life changes, circumstances change and I cannot stick to a New Year’s resolution, that is if I even remember what I set out to resolve. I am a pitch the ball and hit kind of gal. I do believe setting goals is important. Ok, that’s the manager in me speaking. Seriously, having a plan is awesome and it’s needed at times. The issue I have come to realize with myself is that sticking to the plan, doesn’t always allow me the freedom to hear God when He speaks.

“I have a plan God, you’ll have to come back next January 1^st and then You can speak and I’ll listen to your plan and make my goals and New Year’s resolutions.”

Don’t think God works like that and He probably would find much humor in me telling Him that.

So, when my daughter mentioned self-advice, I thought this is a term I can run with. Post-Christmas, I have really been reflecting a bit on me. In that reflecting, I have quite a bit of self-advice. All of that advice hinders on one thing, LOVE GOD.

A list of questions I created for myself:

How do I love God?
How do I show God I love Him?
What are the actions I am going to work on within myself to show God I love Him?
How do I model Jesus?
Who is Jesus to me? How do I view him?
What attributes of Jesus are easy for me to model?
What attributes are more challenging?
How do I achieve the qualities of a good disciple?
What habits do I need to change to acquire the easy attributes of Jesus?
What habits do I need to change to acquire the more challenging attributes of Jesus? How do I work on them bite by bite?

Of course, my questions can continue, but the gist of it is that in order for me to love God I have internal changes to make. I have to fully understand who I am today, who Jesus is and what actions I need to take to internally change myself to reflect Jesus outwardly. Ultimately this is how I show God I love Him by being like Christ, reflecting the image of God that He created in me.

Christ is within each of us. It’s just a matter of digging deep and finding him. And when Jesus asks “what are you looking for,” like he asked the disciples in John 1:38, we will have a clear answer.

How to be his disciple because this is how to love God and serve Him.

We will know when God is calling us and will take every opportunity to answer “speak, for your servant is listening,” because our plan will be His plan. It will be alive and changing with each landscape in our life. And we will have mastered discernment, because our will be in alignment with His will.

St Ignatius said “All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully.”

Invitation: Embrace each gift, each moment, because He is in all and all is given to you to love and serve Him.

May God’s blessing shower each of you.