If you want REAL CHANGE you must change your template.
What does that mean exactly? Have you ever felt like you are just going through the motions? Or circling around the same issues over and over again? Are you stuck in a pattern that isn’t serving you or your family well? The truth is – we all have felt that way- and we all have choices that are presented to us that can move us out of that cycle or back in the loop. It’s the discovery and awareness of these choices where real change can be made.
I’ve heard clients say things like – “I feel like I’m not even aware of when I made the choice to _______ (lie, cheat, drink, eat, stop believing, accept less than…fill in the blank) until I was on the other side in regret. This is, in fact, the hard reality that convinces us that we don’t have a choice. Even worse, we use this as evidence to prove we can’t help it – it’s just how I was born. Or it’s just my personality. We then layer on more so-called evidence by recalling what has been said about us by voices in our head. Even well-intentioned family members trying to explain our limitations have spoken words over us that feed the doubt. They quietly and yet silently encourage us to stop fighting for more – for our freedom and more freedom and more freedom. One of those voices I hear even while I write this says ” stop trying to convince someone there’s freedom because they could just be disappointed and then blame you or blame God” – “Stop struggling against things when you haven’t even overcome it yourself” ” You can’t talk about things unless you have fully overcome them yourself”
For many years I’ve argued with myself from a Christian perspective that is built on trying to find peace and comfort from the conflict of who I want to be versus who God says I am. This is at the very heart of the change to my template.
We might read “Jesus died for my sins – Now I’m a new creature,” which is TRUE however it’s also an ONGOING process. So we wind up feeling like a failing Christian who can’t seem to get it quite right like everyone else. Underneath, we were doubting it could really be that easy – and when we “fail” we layer on another confirmation of our doubt that it’s not really possible.
We don’t need any outside help to DOUBT ourselves. Believe me, we are really good at it naturally. And our enemy, the devil, who is a liar and a thief, is even better at it than we are. He actually schemes against us. Meaning, he sits around thinking of ways to reinforce our doubts and fears about who we are to keep us circling around in neutral-land. So we must understand and acknowledge that we have double doubt coming at us. But remember we have a BIG God who rules over all. He has overcome the world and calls us into MORE! This is why we must recognize and actively fight against our own self-doubt and every lie the enemy throws at us. I’m getting better every day at being a better advocate for myself and recognizing the source of doubt. One question I try to ask myself is “Where is this thought leading me?”
Let me ask you, why do we need to change our template? Do we need to worry about changing, moving forward? When we are living from a place of “neutral” we are not fulfilling our fullest potential and calling.
God created us with the inner drive to pursue ‘more’ – to seek Him and find Him and become LIKE Him in all our ways. Change in our thinking, in our doing, in our moving and even in our pursuing of Him! Becoming like Jesus in our pursuit is our ultimate goal. I believe it’s God’s greatest desire for us as well. He wants us to see ourselves as He sees us – fully alive! He calls us out from the old (brokenhearted, mourning, disappointed, despairing, anxious, grieving, bound up…) into becoming like Jesus in our newfound life – in our new changed template.
Now that my friends, is ...GOOD NEWS!
COMING UP NEXT…Stay Tuned For Some Practical “HOW TO” Steps
Three Components to Change Your Template
Awareness
Acknowledge & Agreement
Accepting & Receiving
Good News Coaching 