AffirmationsP2

Now that you know what it is you would go after if you believed in the practice of affirmations let's ask the second question, "Given the 'promised' results would you be willing to put in the effort to repeat to yourself the daily affirmations in the three ways suggested, verbally, auditorily, as well as tactily." It takes time to write something ten times a day, to repeat something ten times a day and to read something ten times a day. It is not an overwhelming commitment of time, but neither is taking our vitamins but many of us still struggle with making that a part of our daily routines. Again, this is a question that would need to be answered at the raw, honest level, because most people would say sure I’ll do that, but most people also truly intend to keep their New Year’s resolutions beyond the 17 days most New Year's resolutions last.

For those of us who are followers of Christ, this hits a little deeper. I submit that I would be willing to choose two affirmations to consistently reinforce to my mind if I believed this practice truly would work. I’d be willing to think through which two goals would be most worthwhile to me, and then I would be willing to do the pre-work of getting them posted around me, and then I’d commit to the faithful practicing of repeating the affirmations. However, I think there is enough information out there about spiritual formation to know clearly, if not rigidly, what practices we could participate in on a regular basis to grow us into transformed Christ followers. Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Mark Buchanan, Keith Drury, John Ortberg, Ken Boa and many others have written books on the subjects, and the experiences of our church fathers show us examples of people who have chosen to commit to engage in spiritual disciplines such as solitude, prayer, fasting, etc. to mold themselves into people who mirror their savior. We have a choice, if we truly want to get where we say we want to be, then we have the option of choosing to participate in the spiritual disciplines. Is our motivation strong enough to commit to the practices? Is our motivation to walk in the way of Christ stronger than our desire to “Have financial freedom” (not to say that the two are mutually exclusive)? Practicing spiritual disciplines does not necessarily require a great time commitment. We can cultivate the ability to pray in all things without taking time away from other things. We can certainly practice simplicity in a way that does not involve a huge time commitment, etc. Choosing to practice the disciplines is doable, but it involves a discipline of the mind and heart, and a desire to truly go after some things that are counter cultural to our very way of living and being.

In relating affirmations to spiritual disciplines, I like the reminder to factor in human bandwidth for self- improvement of any sort (not to discredit the role of the Holy Spirit). The first time I read, “The Celebration of Discipline” I felt like a loser for not practicing more, if any of those disciplines, but I also felt so overwhelmed by all of them that I had no desire to even try. I like the idea of choosing two to try and incorporate into my real world life. From the spiritual formation side, I am happy to take my reminder that the goal of becoming Christ-like is extremely worthwhile, but also of great importance is the journey. The speaker on the sales call named her lecture “Journey of Abundance” so as to intentionally say the process itself is part of the abundance mindset versus Journey to Abundance which would have implied a starting point of scarcity. No Machiavellianism here, choose to value the means.