The third letter and topic in our G.L.O.R.Y practice is: R for Reflection.

Sometimes it’s in the looking back in our mind’s eye that we learn our greatest lessons. Reflecting on or reviewing the day, week, month, year or decade preceding where we are now helps us to understand why something is or isn’t happening according to our plans, hopes and dreams. Not in a way that shames us for our past mistakes but serves to guide us in the moment and helps us make decisions about our future with the best information possible.

Reflection practice, for me, happens through journaling. Early in motherhood (48 years ago!) I started keeping a journal or a diary of some sort that helped me process my thoughts and feelings and basically spill out on paper the joys and challenges I faced. These little notebooks now total 56, over the years. In my current season of life, I’m churning out one about every 3-4 months. Each entry includes a list of things I’m grateful for, praise and thanksgiving to God, repentance for what His Spirit reveals to me about my mess-ups (sins), hand-written Scriptures, and finishing up with asks for loved ones, folks I may or may not know personally, and general things that are pressing on my heart like events that are upcoming, missions, our country, etc.

I believe that God wants us to write things down. In Habakkuk 2:2-3 the Word says:

“And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” (KJV)

In context, the Lord was speaking through His prophet Habakkuk. Giving him information about things to come and exhorting him to make sure that this information was recorded for a warning to His people at that time in history, and for those who would read the warning in the future and realize that every word from God is true and trustworthy.

To apply this Scripture, I love the “tablet” word. Today’s tablets are of a little different material but I’m so thankful to them just the same. I’m a note taker. I need to write things down. As a nurse, I always had a pen handy, paper too and when I couldn’t find something to write on, I’d grab a paper towel and if that failed to appear, I’d write on my hands, arms and sometimes my scrubs. Most nurses do. Because we were taught, “if it wasn’t documented, it wasn’t done.” And if you didn’t write it down in the moment, your documentation could not be trusted because sometimes our memories just cannot be trusted.

Writing things down takes them from the thoughts in our heads, to the intentions of our hearts, to the physical attention of our hands as we write the words and actually “see” what we are reflecting on and are grateful for and needing God for. Realizing that the freewill He has given us has either gotten us into trouble and needs repentance or when we have been obedient and things have or have not turned out well, He gets all the glory, He is the one in control, not me.

Every once in a great while, I’ll get the inclination to pick up an old journal and read those deep, raw, often immature thoughts and prayers and be thankful for how tenderly God has cared for me and brought me through things that were crushing my spirit at the time. He has always been so, so good.

Romans 8:28

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (KJV)

The experts of the world will tell you that journaling will enhance mental clarity, help you manage stress and anxiety, help you process your emotions and in general give you better mental and physical health. And I believe this to be true. Coming from the perspective of faith in Christ however, journaling without including the spiritual component leaves me with the question of “what is the point?”  If I am just doing it to put myself in a better mood this benefit will only last until I come up against the next thing in my day that brushes me the wrong way. By journaling to reflect on how my life has been lived in Christ and committed to Him, I can do things both easy or hard because I am not handling things on my own. Everything I have ahead of me for that day has been given to God before I live it and entrusted to Him to be worked out for my good and His glory.

So, to kind of wrap this up, if we never look back and evaluate the way we have lived, we have no feedback with which to ever move forward with any kind of certainty that we will not make the same old mistakes. We will not have the knowledge reflection gives us to do better the next time, in as much as we have the ability and freewill to.

 Of course, you do not have to write things down to reflect, but you do need to be still. Just find a comfortable but attentive position. Get calm in your spirit and perhaps take a few deep breaths as your parasympathetic nervous system responds and you relax into a peaceful state. Think of the day or days behind you and in gratitude to God, reflect on those moments that make you smile or bring you joy. Ask God to bring to your remembrance anything that reveals how you might have acted differently by word or deed and tell Him you are sorry and accept His forgiveness. Ask for things that are coming up that you will need His grace and provision for and give Him glory for His goodness.

Matthew 7:11

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (NIV)

Thanks for listening, In Christ, Vickie