Our Inner World

To become a great man, you have to become a good man, one day at a time. And to become a good man, you have to understand your moment and your inner world. Taken from the And Sons magazine purpose statement

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Matthew 6:25 NIV

Understanding the heart and your inner world. This phrase struck me the other day when I was reading the “And Sons” magazine.

For me most of my battles are in my mind and my inner world. And the choices I make about work, family life or church are usually the sources of my worry. Probably true for most of us.

As I have been thinking about my habits and the bad habits I want to get rid of, the one that tops my list is worry.

As I reflect on the last 20 years, worrying about things has not done one thing to help my situation. Not one thing.

Worrying just stresses me out, puts me in a bad mood and robs me of the joy I want in my life. It also makes me pessimistic. I get a bad attitude and want to start blaming others for what is stressing me out.

So, this week let’s turn our worry over to the Lord. Let’s just simply trust in Him. And if things get stressful seek God for peace. And rest in His plans. And remember that worrying about things don’t accomplish anything.

But knee jerking to worry and anxiety can be a habit. I’m going to have to work on changing this habit so I give it up.

In the book, “Atomic Habits,” it says once our habits become automatic, we stop paying attention to what we are doing with the habit. Like paying attention to the cues that might trigger the habit.

James Clear also says, the process of behavior change always starts with awareness. So, we need to be aware of our habits before we can change them.

So, with worry and stress I think, since they are negative habits I tend to exercise, and now that I’m aware of them, my role is to change this behavior or change the way I respond to the “cue” that sets me off.

With the new change I can simply start leaning on new habitual thought patterns and rest my heart in Gods loving grace and peace.

Another free unsolicited piece of advice James Clear writes about is “habit stacking.” I’d never heard of this before. But here is what it looks like. With my worry, there are a few things that consistently happen in my life. I know they are coming, and every time they come my way, boom, worry surfaces. So there are cues that I am now aware of. The cue comes my way, and worry sets in. So My habit is to dread the weekly cue.

However, since I’m now aware of this cue, I’m going to change my response and then habit stack with new habits that will then prayerfully change my emotional response from worry, to actually looking forward to the weekly Information I receive.

Again, all of this starts with being aware of our inner world and what strengthens our hearts and what weakens them.

How’s that for a new habit that strengthens our hearts? Right on!

Being aware of things in our “inner world” can bring such tremendous clarity for us in this journey. I’d say awareness is half the battle, and then taking consistent action towards change to correct ship is the other half.

When you think about your inner world, what tops your list of bad habits you might want to change. Please leave me a comment about your response.

Strengthening your heart in Christ,

Matt