It seems the majority of people today are in search of something. Some may describe "it" as inner peace, truth, the spirit, freedom, nirvana, true self, the list continues. This search can often times be confusing, considering a human being is made up of three parts; body, soul, and spirit. The body has a sense of consciousness that responds to the five senses. The soul is made up of mind, will and emotions; in other words the soul is our personality. It is self-conscious, so our ego is what motivates the soul. The spirit is the essence of who we are, or our true identity. A simple way to put this is, a person is a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body.
When we are born, we are not in touch with our spirit, we are motivated by body and soul. Our motives are about self; "I want what I want", "mine", "me". We have to be taught to share and taught to be considerate to others. This is why when we are children our dreams are immeasurable. We want to go to the moon, become a heart surgeon, travel the world... we feel we can do anything because our world revolves around us. How easy would it be to make all your dreams come true if you were literally the center of the universe? You would be in control of everything.
As we get older, we begin to realize that we are not always in control. There are circumstances, limitations and people outside of ourselves that may keep us from reaching our self-motivated dreams. The life we once knew full of freedom and endless possibilities, starts to slowly diminish as we begin to understand with our minds that the world does not revolve around us. This is why adolescence is considered one of the most challenging stage of life. The body and soul can hardly sustain in a world were you are not the center. We begin a battle against ourselves.
Once we feel all of this frustration, naturally we want to change it, so we begin to adjust. Thinking so innocently that the way to feel content again is from acceptance of sources outside of ourselves. We begin to change the way we dress, talk, act, possibly change the crowd we hang out with, just looking to feel at home in our own bodies again. When we find that no matter how much we change and adjust, we still cannot get that free feeling from childhood back, we begin to turn on ourselves. We believe we are just not good enough, always comparing ourselves to others, thinking "They have it right, why cant I."
People stay stuck in this stage for years, even all of their lives in some cases. Others grow sick and tired of the feeling and have the urge to change it. This is where self-help usually comes into play. We want to love and accept ourselves again, and it seems in order to do this we must focus on self improvement. We may start to go to the gym and eat healthy, or take up yoga, start to read more, focus on gaining knowledge, work harder, work more, change the way we think, think positively, be friendly, smile. Doing all or any of these things seems to make sense. Why shouldn't we better ourselves? The intentions here are so pure and so innocent while in this mind set.
As we make these changes in our body and soul, we start to feel better. We may look better, gain confidence, feel more self worth, all in all were back on track... or at least thats what we think. We continue this self-motivating life style, focused on self-help and self-improvement. We keep striving to get back to that point of happiness and freedom we felt as a child. Some people may even try to get themselves to think how a child would, to see life as a child would, but this is foolish. In reality, we are not children, we can try to see life how they do, but we will be trying our whole life.
While making these self improvements, we begin to get recognition from others around us. People notice we are in better shape, or looking happier... and so on. This is very dangerous territory because we feed off of this recognition. We get to a point where the recognition becomes our fuel. We are seeking acceptance and we seem to be getting it! Feeding our egos becomes our primary concern. We keep pushing ourselves to reach higher goals, to do more, to balance it all until we are spiraling out of control. We are like a snowball rolling down a hill picking up speed. We get to a point where we cant even sit still! We feel we should be doing something, we could be doing something at ALL times. It is absolutely exhausting.
Yes, we are seeking acceptance, but we are seeking in the wrong places. Instead of looking outside of ourselves, we must look within. This is where the third part of our being comes into play, our spirit. Our spirit is our true identity. If we can live in the spirit we are fully free because we are truly ourselves, the person God created us to be. We are down to the deepest part of ourselves and we can live in peace and dance in the joy of it! We are free, and circumstances, limitations or other people can never have control of us again!
But how do we find our spirit? How do we get to know our spirit?
When an inventor makes an creation (or invention), the inventor decides what the purpose of the creation will be. The inventor takes each small part and puts it together to create one fully functioning creation. He takes time and effort and puts his love into the creation, he wants to leave his mark on it. This is the way that God created us. He is the inventor and we are His creations. He has created us each with a specific purpose for our lives. He knows our names and the number of hairs on our heads, after all He was the One who decided them. He took pride in creating each of us and wants the credit for it. An artist, or anyone who has created anything in their lifetime for that matter, can relate to this.
How would you like it if you worked on a special art project, or practiced hard to win the game, or really studied for a test and someone else took the credit for it? It wasn't you who people were praising, it was someone else. Or how about if your art project (lets use a robot for this example :)) walked around saying it didn't care about you and doesn't need you! You created it! How dare it! You put all of your love into this creation and now it wont even acknowledge you.
God created us in the image of Himself. He loved us so much that He gave us a spirit that is of Him! This is why when we begin to dig deeper and understand our spirit, we see that we are motivated less by furthering ourselves and motivated more by helping others. We realize we do not need to improve ourselves, we have everything we need inside of us. All the things we tried to do in the past, become natural. There is no more trying to be positive, have more family time, and so on.
When we are seeking our spirit, we must surrender to the fact that no matter how many self-improvements we make, we cannot find our true selves and our purpose without acknowledging our Creator. He knows the secrets to our spirit because He made it.
How do we seek God?
We can start by just feeling that He is there. Understanding that there is something so much bigger than us. Renewing the mind to see we are not held captive by the weight of the world on our shoulders. Knowing the opinions of others will not get in the way. Embracing the fact that we are small, that we are humans. Being excited and joyful that we have a God who loves us and has perfect plans for our lives.
Your parents did not conceive you in order to ruin your life. The same goes for God. Why would he create us in the first place if it wasn't for our benefit? He is God, He does not need to create anything. But He did. And He also created a beautiful world and breathtaking scenery for us to marvel at. Every time we look at the the sun setting, the waves of the ocean, the snow falling, the birds soaring, we should be reminded of God and all His love for us.
To know the Father, you must know the Son. Jesus is God in the flesh. In Jesus' words:
"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life -whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to Him than they are? Can your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet any man in all of his glory could not be dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and wilted tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? So don't worry about these things, saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Todays trouble is enough for today." -Matthew 6:25-34
Don't understand spirituality in the first place? What is spirituality?
When we are born, we are not in touch with our spirit, we are motivated by body and soul. Our motives are about self; "I want what I want", "mine", "me". We have to be taught to share and taught to be considerate to others. This is why when we are children our dreams are immeasurable. We want to go to the moon, become a heart surgeon, travel the world... we feel we can do anything because our world revolves around us. How easy would it be to make all your dreams come true if you were literally the center of the universe? You would be in control of everything.
As we get older, we begin to realize that we are not always in control. There are circumstances, limitations and people outside of ourselves that may keep us from reaching our self-motivated dreams. The life we once knew full of freedom and endless possibilities, starts to slowly diminish as we begin to understand with our minds that the world does not revolve around us. This is why adolescence is considered one of the most challenging stage of life. The body and soul can hardly sustain in a world were you are not the center. We begin a battle against ourselves.
Once we feel all of this frustration, naturally we want to change it, so we begin to adjust. Thinking so innocently that the way to feel content again is from acceptance of sources outside of ourselves. We begin to change the way we dress, talk, act, possibly change the crowd we hang out with, just looking to feel at home in our own bodies again. When we find that no matter how much we change and adjust, we still cannot get that free feeling from childhood back, we begin to turn on ourselves. We believe we are just not good enough, always comparing ourselves to others, thinking "They have it right, why cant I."
People stay stuck in this stage for years, even all of their lives in some cases. Others grow sick and tired of the feeling and have the urge to change it. This is where self-help usually comes into play. We want to love and accept ourselves again, and it seems in order to do this we must focus on self improvement. We may start to go to the gym and eat healthy, or take up yoga, start to read more, focus on gaining knowledge, work harder, work more, change the way we think, think positively, be friendly, smile. Doing all or any of these things seems to make sense. Why shouldn't we better ourselves? The intentions here are so pure and so innocent while in this mind set.
As we make these changes in our body and soul, we start to feel better. We may look better, gain confidence, feel more self worth, all in all were back on track... or at least thats what we think. We continue this self-motivating life style, focused on self-help and self-improvement. We keep striving to get back to that point of happiness and freedom we felt as a child. Some people may even try to get themselves to think how a child would, to see life as a child would, but this is foolish. In reality, we are not children, we can try to see life how they do, but we will be trying our whole life.
While making these self improvements, we begin to get recognition from others around us. People notice we are in better shape, or looking happier... and so on. This is very dangerous territory because we feed off of this recognition. We get to a point where the recognition becomes our fuel. We are seeking acceptance and we seem to be getting it! Feeding our egos becomes our primary concern. We keep pushing ourselves to reach higher goals, to do more, to balance it all until we are spiraling out of control. We are like a snowball rolling down a hill picking up speed. We get to a point where we cant even sit still! We feel we should be doing something, we could be doing something at ALL times. It is absolutely exhausting.
Yes, we are seeking acceptance, but we are seeking in the wrong places. Instead of looking outside of ourselves, we must look within. This is where the third part of our being comes into play, our spirit. Our spirit is our true identity. If we can live in the spirit we are fully free because we are truly ourselves, the person God created us to be. We are down to the deepest part of ourselves and we can live in peace and dance in the joy of it! We are free, and circumstances, limitations or other people can never have control of us again!
But how do we find our spirit? How do we get to know our spirit?
When an inventor makes an creation (or invention), the inventor decides what the purpose of the creation will be. The inventor takes each small part and puts it together to create one fully functioning creation. He takes time and effort and puts his love into the creation, he wants to leave his mark on it. This is the way that God created us. He is the inventor and we are His creations. He has created us each with a specific purpose for our lives. He knows our names and the number of hairs on our heads, after all He was the One who decided them. He took pride in creating each of us and wants the credit for it. An artist, or anyone who has created anything in their lifetime for that matter, can relate to this.
How would you like it if you worked on a special art project, or practiced hard to win the game, or really studied for a test and someone else took the credit for it? It wasn't you who people were praising, it was someone else. Or how about if your art project (lets use a robot for this example :)) walked around saying it didn't care about you and doesn't need you! You created it! How dare it! You put all of your love into this creation and now it wont even acknowledge you.
God created us in the image of Himself. He loved us so much that He gave us a spirit that is of Him! This is why when we begin to dig deeper and understand our spirit, we see that we are motivated less by furthering ourselves and motivated more by helping others. We realize we do not need to improve ourselves, we have everything we need inside of us. All the things we tried to do in the past, become natural. There is no more trying to be positive, have more family time, and so on.
When we are seeking our spirit, we must surrender to the fact that no matter how many self-improvements we make, we cannot find our true selves and our purpose without acknowledging our Creator. He knows the secrets to our spirit because He made it.
How do we seek God?
We can start by just feeling that He is there. Understanding that there is something so much bigger than us. Renewing the mind to see we are not held captive by the weight of the world on our shoulders. Knowing the opinions of others will not get in the way. Embracing the fact that we are small, that we are humans. Being excited and joyful that we have a God who loves us and has perfect plans for our lives.
Your parents did not conceive you in order to ruin your life. The same goes for God. Why would he create us in the first place if it wasn't for our benefit? He is God, He does not need to create anything. But He did. And He also created a beautiful world and breathtaking scenery for us to marvel at. Every time we look at the the sun setting, the waves of the ocean, the snow falling, the birds soaring, we should be reminded of God and all His love for us.
To know the Father, you must know the Son. Jesus is God in the flesh. In Jesus' words:
"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life -whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to Him than they are? Can your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet any man in all of his glory could not be dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and wilted tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? So don't worry about these things, saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Todays trouble is enough for today." -Matthew 6:25-34
Don't understand spirituality in the first place? What is spirituality?
2 comments:
Spirituality is being in touch with your inner man;your Spirit& soul...being sensitive to the holy spirit that resides with in!!It's divine appointments.God chooses you!
all Gods love
Lisa Lisi~
Thanks for your comment and encouragement! Love you!
Post a Comment