The Reflection Of Richard Foster's Celebration Of Discipline

That is one of the areas of my life that I know God is really working on right now; the idea that I will probably never find time, but that I need to make time for these disciplines to happen in my life. With that being said, I have decided that I will start off by journaling once a week. My goal will be to work through the example questions that are offered on page 52 of Calhoun’s book Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. For example, the first two questions that I will aim to answer are: “For what moment today am I most grateful? For what moment today am I least grateful?.” Just because I know that Tuesdays, next semester, are filled with less activities than other days of the week, I am going to try very hard to journal every Tuesday. I would love to see the amount that I journal increase every few weeks, but I know that a goal like that would not be attainable for me. My ambition is to allow myself thirty minutes every Tuesday to analyze my walk with the Lord and others; however, I hope to allow the Spirt to lead me to think about other things in my journals. In other words, I hope that what I write when answering the predetermined questions will inspire me to begin writing other burdens that may be on my

This essay presents the argument that instead of keeping a busy life, we should live a carefree and relaxed life instead. The busyness that overtakes our lives often comes subconsciously, which we submit to, without even realizing it ourselves. This supports Kreider’s claims that busyness is a “trap”. He also points out that once it has begun to overtake our lives, we begin to accept it and are led to believe that there is no way to avoid it. Once we start to believe that busyness is an unavoidable part of life, then we fall into the “busy trap.” The author also encourages the audience to avoid a busy lifestyle giving several reasons why a relaxed lifestyle is more ideal. The author also challenges the audience to avoid busyness and to strive towards a less stressful lifestyle.

This paper is about my experience with mindfulness based meditation and scientific inquiry of these experiences. Mindfulness based meditation is describes as technique used to cultivate nonreactive, non-judgmental and stable awareness of the present moment (Garland and Gaylord, 2009). The end goal is to sustain this meta-cognitive state for a long period of time. I practiced non-denominational form of mindfulness based meditation for the first time in my psychology class, which was devoted towards intellectual and experiential examination of meditation. The practice was conducted in a group it was instructed by our own professor and it begun at the end of class. There was one sessions per week and each session was structured meaning it was

In (Matthew 6:6 NIV), Jesus explains the merits of praying to the lord God and the reward of inner peace, “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret: and your father who sees in secret will reward you.” It is through this conversation with God that Christians pursue peace in their lives. Prayer can either be private or communal, spontaneous prayer is one way that charismatic communities can come closer to God. The act of prayer allows believers to have a personal conversation with God; it alleviates stress attributed to the monotony of everyday life. Besides prayer, meditation is another way of attaining inner peace, it is an ancient practice within the Christian tradition, which has undertaken a recent revival, a global group that reaffirms the concept of praying and meditating for inner peace is Taizé. Not as popular as prayer and meditation, Lectio Divina, generally known as bible studies is a way for Christians to feel connected to God and to finally attain inner peace. The studying of the sacred scriptures on a day to day basis and reflecting on prayers also maintain a continual connection with God. It is vital to maintain equilibrium between prayer and service, whereby an individual fathoms the notion ‘ora et labora’, in order to equally partake in both prayer, and the concept of action whereby ora develops inner peace, which is mirrored through the

We all have a busy life where unfortunately we all don’t get to focus our entire dedication to one thing. We are forced to focus on everything that is going on in our lives all at the same time. Focusing our effort and energy on different things at the same time involves us not putting our full dedication to each and every subject. When we go to work, work out, and spend some time with our families can we truly give our entire focus to each and everything thing of these? I believe it is impossible because while doing one thing our mind gets interrupted by the other things we have to put our focus in. Therefore, we do not all get to truly put our entire focus on each thing we have to take care of in our lives. I feel this is a great example

Making an effort for private time with Jesus, meaning allowing my mind an opportunity for flowing freely. Listening prayer, as McNeal, (2011) wrote about in "A Work of Heart" is allowing our subconscious the right of passage to our conscious while simultaneously incorporating theology.

Meditation is a form of stress management that will allow our mind to experience an oasis of peace and love within our

J.P Moreland’s second step to renovating the soul and returning to authentic spiritual renovation is fostering spiritual discipline. When you present your body to God as a living sacrifice it involves not only a one-time act of dedication, but a habitual,

Inward disciplines are related to those ones where the inner self –awareness part is involved- Mind and Spirit. Are the reflection of a life of self-disciplined and hunger for the things of God. This inward disciplines are Meditation, Prayer, Fasting and Study in the Christian Life, all related to God and His

At work our manager decided to do something fun for the office to raise office morale. She got individual photos of us and stuck them on magazine pages. My photo was put on a 4 year old boy hanging from monkey bars for a Target advertisement. This magnified how I had felt most of my life. That people considered me to be the immature one. Therefore, when having to choose a discipline from Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s book Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, the one that resonated with me the most was discernment as the desire is “to delight in and recognise the voice and will of God”.

Through solitude, we have the opportunity to retreat and be alone with God. We are away from the hustle and bustle of our chaotic days. We are not concerned with work, school, or family, which allows us to rid ourselves of the noise pollution that effects “the sacred within.” During times of solitude we can readjust our focus and thoughts on love for ourselves and our love for God. We can center ourselves and as Narsinha Mehta writes, “They are pure in thought, word, and deed. Free from greed, anger, and fear, These are the real lovers of God.” (Easwaren, 1982. P. 148). This time in solitude allows us the ability to confess our faults and motivates us to seek God.

Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, was first published in 1978. It presented sets of Disciplines that, if followed, would serve as vehicles for a deeper relationship with Christ as well as preparation for service. These disciplines are divided into three broad categories: the Inward Disciplines, the Outward Disciplines, and the Corporate Disciplines (Foster, 2003). Each category contains four Disciplines, which indicated by their titles, moves the disciple from the very personal to the larger congregational community (Foster, 2003). Recognizing humanity’s trend to make any process a law or regulation to follow, Foster warned against this by reminding the disciple that to do so would turn

Throughout the semester I have developed an understanding for the spiritual disciplines; silence, solitude, and Sabbath; which has taught me how to live an intention Christ-centered life. The disciplines have not only helped my personal daily life, but they have also helped me better understand Christ himself. I can, without a doubt, say that I know that God gave us the gifts of spiritual disciplines to help guide us in the crazy culture we live in. I have gained a new appreciation for the maker of our world as He has gone out of His way to love on us, and all He asks us in return to practice disciplines and grow closer to him. The disciplines have have taught me that seeking God is about more than just saying a prayer before bed. Instead, it is practicing the disciplines and seeing His faithfulness through the actions. My practice of silence has taught me that the world is a loud place full of so many distractions. This specific practice has helped me seek God, in a deep way, by committing to listening to him in silence rather than wondering why I could never here him in the midst of the crowds. My practice of solitude has become a sort of Bible study time for me. A time to be alone and remember all the good our King has done and will continue to do for us. My practice of Sabbath has helped me start of each week with a positive outlook. Surprisingly it has also given me a deeper understanding of academics as well as it forces me to get my homework done before my day of

Celebration of Discipline by Richard F. Foster is a book about the path to spiritual growth. This book will help me train myself to be emotionally stronger while reaffirming my ethics and

I will explore a few of unique approaches as outlined in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. I will describe my experience of integrating some of the concepts of spiritual direction into my practice.