Listening to Ourselves Takes Courage
by Scott Stoner
When hiking a trail, it is common to find benches along
the way where hikers can stop and take a rest, like the bench we see on the
front cover. I invite us to use today as a bench to sit upon and to take a
rest, reflecting on the challenging work of listening more fully to ourselves
that we have engaged in this week.
Dawna Wall described this challenging work of genuinely
listening to ourselves in her reflection last Sunday. She reminded us that
listening to ourselves can bring us face to face with our insecurities and
frustrations. The temptation is to turn away and not listen.
We have learned this week that if we choose to avoid the
challenging work of listening to ourselves, often we will prolong any
difficulty we are facing. We have also learned that the choices we make
regarding how we listen to ourselves set the patterns we have for listening to
God, and listening to others.
So as we rest on
this metaphorical hiker’s bench, let’s be gentle with ourselves, and celebrate
and appreciate the inner work we have done this week. My hope is that our inner
work will bear good fruit throughout the remainder of our journey through Lent.
Making It Personal:
Reflecting back over this past week, what was it like to focus on listening to
yourself?
As we continue our focus on the theme of listening, is
there one thing that you have learned so far that you want to be sure to hold
on to throughout the remainder of this season of Lent?
Living
Well Through Lent 2021
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©2021 Scott Stoner.
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rights reserved.
Please take a moment to comment as I monitor my post during Lent
to see if I should continue my blog postings. Thank you!
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