The First Discipline That I Chose To Practice Over The

I might not show it and express it at times but every time something goes good I thank god. When things aren’t going how I wanted them to I pray. I pray that God leads me through the best path. If things still don’t go how I expected then I always think to myself that it happened for a reason and then I accept it. In my family, my grandma is my biggest inspiration. She is the one who teaches me how to pray and why you should pray. One thing she explains to me often is that praying is not done only when you’re in need of something. You pray when you want to bless others, thank God and also to just have a conversation with him. Many times I have no clue what I am doing or like other times I just need someone to listen to me, so I talk to him. After I prayed or talked to him I always feel like everything will get better and to never lose hope. I am happy with my faith and who I go to when I am not in the best

I have struggled with things I didn’t know how to overcome and had to leave in the hands of God. I had to put my trust in God when my great aunt had to have emergency surgery. She is ninety years old and the doctors didn’t think she would be strong enough to recover, but she recovered faster than they would expect a heathy, young person to.

I have always been stuck on the same major since I was a freshmen in high school, and nothing has yet changed my mind. Through athletic experiences, and playing three sports throughout high school career, injuries from that sport, shadowing opportunities, and classes that have impacted my choice of my major. I have chose the major of Athletic Training, and I have many reasons behind why I chose it. From all of my experiences, I have felt and have been supported and that is a big part of athletic training and reason I have chosen the major as well, so I am able to show support to others the way I have felt it. Throughout picking my major, I also have a big support system of people who have supported my decision including my family, friends,

I had always felt that to pray there had to be some eloquent way to convey the things that you wanted to say to God. I also was often frustrated, as I questioned that if God was all knowing, why was it necessary to pray to him and tell him things he already knew. Throughout my time at NCYC I came to understand my relationship with God less like a human and omniscient being relationship, but more as a parent and child relationship. Though He may already know what you have to tell Him, it is about building the communication and the friendship, so that He can work best in your life. The best analogy that I have heard about this was from one of the leaders of the trip, and he compared life to being in a marching band. From the point of view of the musicians, it seems chaotic and as though people are going in every direction for no apparent reason; however, from up

My classmate and I sat in the back and settled in. We didn’t introduce ourselves. Who would we even begin to introduce ourselves to? We were just a face in the crowd. People starting sitting down and at 8PM the meeting started. “Hi, my name is Paul, and I’m an alcoholic”. To this all replied, “Hi Paul”. We were all welcomed to the Wednesday night meeting of the Auburn Serenity Group. Some group business was taken care of quickly and we headed into the Serenity Prayer. It was easy to fall into the rhythm of this meeting and I found myself saying the prayer too. After all, this was

This made forming a relationship with the Lord difficult for her and it took her quite some time to begin to understand what it meant to surrender to Him. Even after her conversion she was still in the process of learning how to surrender and pray. She says, “I prefer to find God in circumstances I think up in advance, at home in my spare time-circumstances God will fulfill for me like a gumball machine when I put the penny of my prayer into it” (page 363). She was and still is on a journey in her relationship with Him and is still learning to know Him better. I too am still in the process of learning how to pray and surrender, and I am sure I always will be. It is very easy for me to place prayer in the category of something I do because I’m a Christian rather than because I want to spend time with the Lord and grow in Him. When I pray seriously and I open myself up to Him, I always feel a sense of relief afterward. I may not feel happier, after all prayer can reveal aspects of myself that I may not wish to face, but it always reminds me of God’s power and goodness and leaves me feeling closer to

Therefore, before I arrived that Sunday I did attempt to mentally prepare myself for what was ahead. Though I knew what the meeting entailed it was still quite challenging to focus my thoughts for an hour without former practice. Though I tried to think about specific topics and succeeded in my concentration a handful of times my mind frequently wandered. I found myself opening my eyes to see who was moving or walking in the door, and gazing around the room contemplating its set up. When my eyes were closed, which was most of the time, my mind would turn its focus to the weight of my head on my neck and how extremely heavy and awkward it felt. The experience was very eye opening and extremely personal. Seeing where my mind went in an hour of silence showed me what my thoughts are drawn to and how long I can sit still with no real active stimulation before I get restless. I don’t feel that my experience was all that spiritual though. At times during the hour I did pray and focus on the energy and presence of God, but it wasn’t extremely moving. I feel that for my first time, my body and mind were just trying to understand and adjust to the process. I realized how focused and trained your mind must have to be to stay engrossed in the meeting with no visual or auditory reminders of your purpose there. I believe that if I revisit the meeting I

Fortunately, I decided two weeks ago, that on June 20, 2016 I was going embark on a deeper level of praying, meditating, and fasting. On Monday’s I participate in a group prayer at 5:15am, so after I finished I was able to go into silence and solitude mode. Whenever there is a call for stillness, I must partake in it as early as possible. The earlier the better, because if I try to do any activities after 7a.m., it is unlikely that it will get accomplished, because my kids are like raging bulls that have been let out of the stable, and they need my undivided attention to secure their safety. The only challenge I ran into was since I started the “Draw the Circle 40-Day Prayer Challenge” today, my phone was buzzing with inquiries with people that wanted to join. Therefore, that was a slight distraction.

When I was a sophmore, I went through a period of time where i stopped going to church as much as i had before. After a while i found myself questioning where i stood in my faith. I would always become angry quickly and shut everyone out, soon i realized that i needed to go back to where i started. That same night i fell to my knees in prayer asking the

In the Part Two of The Fifth Discipline, Senge states eleven laws of the fifth discipline. The first law called “Today 's problems come from yesterday 's solutions”. The reason of a problem may have relationship with the solution of other problem. When people believe they already solved a problem, the problem actually move from one part to another part in a system. The solution of the problem would cause other problem happened. The second law is “The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back”. In system thinking, this phenomenon called compensating feedback. It means well-intentioned intervention sometimes would not get the ideal result at the end, because the benefit of the intervention will decrease when the intervention implement. Well-intentioned intervention may bring the negative influences for the system. The third one is “Behavior grows better before it grows worse”. When people deal with some issues, it seems that they have already solved this problem. However, for the long-term process, the compensating feedback and problems will emerge again. Forth one called “compensating feedback”. People sometimes believe using the familiar solutions to solve problems is most effectively, but familiar solutions may cause the problems get worsen. The fifth law is “The cure can be worse than the disease” which mean non- systemic solutions would cause more and more related problems happened in the future. The sixth law is “Faster is slower.” Many people believe fast is

The book "What Do I want In Prayer?” taught me many lessons about prayer, such as, what can prayer do for us, and how it brings us closer to God and makes us question what is happening in our lives, and how prayer protects us, and finally how can we have a good relationship with God by prayer. In the book "What Do I want In Prayer?”, the author helped me to understand that prayer or retreat are valid not only when we are agitated or with

Having been a Christian for many years I thought that I had a fair knowledge of what it meant to pray. I was amazed and humbled by the idea that through Jesus’ restorative act on the cross I am able to come into God’s presence - and not only come but be welcomed and even longed for. I believed that prayer is a powerful tool to petition God , a vehicle to praise Him , and an instrument to increase our intimacy with Him . I understood that people pray in a variety of ways, based on the teaching they have received, their experience, and even their personality. Most commonly, I engaged in prayer as a conversation with God.

God talks to us through His word every time we open up and read the Bible. We speak to God while we pray. Prayer is an important part of someone’s life. We pray and sometimes we praise Him in songs that we sing. While we be at church or alone. (Philippians 1:3-4) When we face temptations, prayer can make us feel secure. (Deuteronomy 31:8) God will never leave our side, even though we leave his side. He will never fail us even though we fail Him. (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Praying without ceasing. Build a relationship with God. Your prayer life shows how your relationship with God is. It’s never too much “prayer time” when you talk to the great almighty God that created you and died for you on Calvary’s cross for our sins. God is our best friend our only friend that will not fail us.

The selected spiritual practices margin, non-judging, blessing others, and encouraging others are on my Rule of Life. I chose margin because I liked the feeling of slowing down and really taking time to look at things I may have missed. As a college student, many times I feel rushed and need do everything quickly. I

My whole life I was raised in a Catholic family only believing in Mary, Jesus mother. Until, my parents sent me to a Christian school which wasn’t something I agree with. I would always ask myself why did my parents send me to a Christian school instead of a Catholic school. But over the years I was interested in knowing more about the bible and God. I finally decided to be saved back in 2009 when I finally understood the meaning of living for eternity in heaven. Although, I’ve always had problems with praying because I was afraid of not saying the right words or starting with “Father, thank you for this day.” Every time, I was chosen to pray over everyone on the inside I didn’t want to forget anything I should pray about. Throughout the years, I learned that our words are powerful not only to others but to God. I decided to work on my prayer time with God since I tend to forget to pray for all the blessings he provides for me every day. Each day I’ve spend at least fifteen minutes praying to God over all the people I care about trying to not forget or leave out anyone. It has helped me realize the power of prayer which I was afraid about in the past about making a mistake. Now, I can say with confidence that prayer is always the answer when we feel sad, anger or hurt. I didn’t understand why it took me a long time to truly comprehend the meaning of prayer and how it helps us communicate with God. Prayer is something that should come out naturally from your mouth but that