Spiritual Disciplines: Prayer

I am always wanting to improve my prayer life, but have found this aspect of Christian spirituality to be incredibly elusive.  I so admire those prayer warriors I know who, when they say they'll be praying for me, actually do bring my requests before the Lord.  Recently I have made a task list on my phone so when someone asks for prayer I immediately enter it there before I forget.  Then I pray for them right on the spot.  Whenever I add a new prayer, I see the old ones there and remember to pray for them too.  So far, it's a great system.  

Reading the chapter on prayer in Celebration of Discipline, Foster leads me to a greater depth of understanding in intercessory prayer.

Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us.


Crucial to the life of a growing Christian, daily transformation into the likeness of Christ must take precedence. Knowing this, prayer must be an essential aspect of my daily life.


The Bible pray-ers prayed as if their prayers could and would make an objective difference.


Do I believe this? Are my seemingly lackluster prayers as effective as those Bible pray-ers? Foster says that prayer is an exercise in which we will grow stronger the more we do it. Even if I feel weak in this discipline now doesn't mean my prayers don't reach the ears of the Father.


To understand that the work of prayer involves a learning process saves us from arrogantly dismissing it as false or unreal.

Learning can be painful. I just look at my ESL students and feel their humility and self-doubt as acutely as if I myself were in their place. How can we be arrogant in prayer when the learning process so blatantly brings us to our knees before the throne? We can know the work and power of prayer is real, since we feel the work of the Holy Spirit wash over us in those communion moments.


Our prayer is to be like a reflex action to God's prior initiative on the heart.

I really liked this statement. Like, a lot. Just think about that reflex action. Imagine you are at your yearly physical check-up and the doctor taps your knee. You barely miss him with your kick, your reflexive action. Now, imagine God is that doctor, and he's been tapping on your heart, prodding you to pray for so-and-so. All of a sudden your spirit kicks into action and, before you know it, you start interceding for that person. That's some neat imagery to consider, isn't it?



We must never wait until we feel like praying before we pray for others

This is what trips me up. Every time. Just like exercise, I often need to give myself a little nudge to get out there and just do it.

Let's encourage one another to 

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Love, 
Ashleigh 

Spiritual Disciplines: Meditation...

I finished the chapter on meditation in the book. Isn't it so difficult to just be still and open ourselves up to the voice of God? It is for me, at least. Foster encouraged his inexperienced readers to make meditation a regular part of the day. He said having that scheduled time helps us to practice and grow that meditative muscle. Because there may be some confusion between yogic meditation and Christian meditation, here are some [hopefully] clarifying statements from the book:

Continual focus upon obedience and faithfulness most clearly distinguishes Christian meditation from Eastern and secular

Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind.

Foster reminds us that meditation is not only for those ascetic or very experienced Christians. Every Christian should meditate on God's Word. Here's why:

[Meditation] boldly calls us to enter into the living presence of God ourselves.

During meditation, we create the emotional/spiritual space which allows Christ to construct an inner sanctuary in the heart .

Meditation can be a comfort to the Christian for many reasons. Foster suggests taking one piece of Scripture and focusing on only that for one entire week. We can then become closer to the text, feeling, tasting, touching, seeing, hearing God's word in HD, if you will.

I will leave you with a final quote from Foster to hopefully encourage you towards godly meditation:

The detachment from the confusion all around us is in order to have a richer attachment to God.

Love,
Ashleigh

Spiritual Disciplines...

I started re-reading Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Richard J. Foster.  This was one of our assigned texts at Bible college, and it's been a long time since I've gone through it. I have been craving spiritual growth and maturity in Christ; I knew that it was time to get back into the disciplines of our faith.  As I was reading yesterday, I tweeted some of the sentences that stood out to me: 

Superficiality is the curse of our age....The desperate need today is for deep people.

Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deepest ingrained habits of sin.

The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us.

This is pretty powerful stuff. It's a blessing to have resources that come alongside God's Word and guide us into a deeper understanding.  As I read through the book, I would like to share my thoughts regarding the various disciplines. I'm praying that I will grow closer to God through the practice of each discipline. I hope you will benefit from it, too.

Love, Ashleigh

Happiness Is...

Day 14: Ten things that make you really happy

1. Chocolate

2. Jake

3. My bed i.e. the pillows that make it more comfortable to sleep

4. A good, danceable song

5. Visiting with family

6. Time spent reading an engaging book

7. Walking outdoors, usually on a trail

8. Thinking about my growing baby

9. Being surprised

10. Traveling overseas

Love,

Ashleigh

An Apology...

Day 13: Issue a public apology. This can be as funny or as serious or as creative as you want it to be.

An apology from the music industry:

We're sorry for all you pop lovers out there who have to listen to country music on your favourite pop station

*cough* Cruise *cough

We're sorry for all you country lovers out there who have to listen to pop music on your favourite country station

*cough* Taylor Swift *cough*

Let's face it, these two genres should never mix.

EVER.

Sincerely,

Us

~~~~~~

Love, 

Ashleigh

Something I Miss...

Day 12: What do you miss? (a person, a thing, a place, a time of your life...)

Jake and I often talk and reminisce about our week-long honeymoon in the Dominican Republic in 2010.   Although the weather was not very nice--many teased us about being too white when we got back...there was sun for literally three days, people!-- it was still warm and so relaxing.  Neither of us had ever been on an all-inclusive vacation before, and we both enjoyed taking a 'real' vacation with our best friend.  We ate maybe a little bit too much food, got some sunburns, toured around the nearby village, and learned what it was like to live with each other and love deeper. 

It was a week that I will never forget, and one that I definitely miss.  I also miss all the honeymoon photos that I lost due to a computer crash.  Thankfully I had uploaded a good chunk to Facebook beforehand.  

Love, 
Ashleigh

Our favourite drink- Banana Coladas!

All dressed up for the fancy restaurant

Just an idea of what the sky looked like for the majority
of our trip.  We were just so happy to be together!

Sell My What?...

Day 11: Sell yourself in 10 words or less

Can I just skip this one? No? 

Fine.  Here goes:

Friendly and fun young woman with a heart for change.

That wasn't awkward at all-except that I felt like I was writing an ad for myself in the newspaper.

Time for my morning cup of tea.

Love, 
Ashleigh

Just Don't Do It...

I had another pre-natal check-up yesterday.  My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were kind enough to drive me and wait in boring waiting rooms for a good chunk of the day.  Jocie got to hear her little niece/nephew's (or nibling, as she refers to it) heartbeat.  Baby certainly didn't want to cooperate, and was moving all around when the nurse tried to find the heartbeat with the Doppler fetal monitor.  We all laughed when (I felt) we heard a kick as it tried to express indignation.  Eventually baby calmed down and gave us a nice, strong heartbeat of 140 BBM.  

Thankfully everything is going well with the baby's health and growth, but other news has left me feeling somewhat sad.  I told the nurse that running was uncomfortable this week.  The first time I went, I had to cut it short after 10 minutes because it felt like the baby was a lead weight at the bottom of my abdomen.  The second time was amazing-even though I was super slow!-and yet I felt the most excruciating pelvic bone/groin pain that night and over the next few days.  Both the nurse and my OB smiled and suggested I try brisk walking instead.  

Sadface. 

After feeling the discomfort of my second run, I had pretty much come to that conclusion on my own, but hearing it from a medical professional made it more concrete.  Although it will be difficult to give up running for the next few months, I'm happy that I was able to go this far.  I can tell my baby that "Mama ran a 5K when she was 8 weeks pregnant with you" and "You were my little running partner up until 32 weeks".  Who knows, maybe this wee one will enjoy running with me someday.  

I have plans to train for a 10-K race as soon as the doctor gives me the go-ahead, and have no doubt that Jake and our babe will be my biggest supporters!

Love, 
Ashleigh

Red in the Face...

Day 10: Most embarrassing moment (s). Spill. 

I must confess, I actually hate questions like this. A lot. It's mostly because I can't remember any embarrassing moments. Perhaps there is a secret vault in my mind where I store the things I want to forget because, let's face it, who wants to remember the toilet paper trailing behind a shoe, or tripping in front of a crush? (Thankfully those things have never happened to me...oh, wait.)

There have been many times I've embarrassed myself in front of people, said things that brought high colour to my cheeks, made my friends laugh at me, and had many awkward toilet clogging moments over the years (trust me, you'll remember those too if it was at your house.)

I've decided to share with you one highly embarrassing time that I still remember vividly.  I was in Grade 9, and I was walking to Zehrs on a lunch break with a couple of my friends.  I can't exactly remember who was with me because the mortification of what happened shames me to this day.  It was a grey, cloudy day, but the anticipation of food spurred us on.  There is this church in my hometown on the main road with a big metal sign out front displaying the church's name and logo.  The sign is a significant size, it's black, it's wide, it's...yeah, you can't miss it.  Unless you're me.  Unless you walked into the sharp, black metal corner, gouging your head and requiring Nana to drive you to the ER for two stitches.  

Two stitches!!

Maybe the reason I remember it so vividly is that I can still feel and see the little white scar on my head when I make a part in my hair.  Maybe it's because I should have been watching where I was going.  Maybe it's because I lost cool points in front of my friends.  

Whatever the case, I will never forget that moment.

Love, 
Ashleigh

Knowingly Addicted...

Day 9: A moment in your day (this can be just a photo or both a photo and words)

I decided to wait until today to leave a lot of room for special moments.  This was it.

You see this right here?  At the beginning of yesterday it made up
about 3/4 of a zucchini-pineapple loaf.  I ate three pieces, so I
guess you could say this made up three moments
of my day.
Love, Ashleigh