Can You Love Yourself Today & the Enneagram

After choosing to forgo the Monday alarm my body woke me up a little after 6. My feet hit the floor to the excitement of the girls, ready to get their day started also. My day normally starts out with a glass of water and an apple and peanut butter, along with making sure Jon and the dogs are moving, but then I’m usually left to my own thoughts and routine. That’s where the day can go one of two ways: focusing on beauty or brokenness.

My foot got tangled up in a basket I had left outside our bathroom door and the momentary pain coursed through my toes and up my leg: frustration. The mirror caught my attention as usual as I scrubbed my teeth and all the thoughts came crashing in, I’m bloated, my ankle is stiff, there are bags under my eyes, my hair is a greasy mess – how am I going to control my food today, beginnings of anxiety from hosting a girls night and making sure everything is picture perfect – j.k. I’ll never be good enough. Loving myself and the way God made me was far from truth I was speaking over my life, and that’s a really bad way to start the week.

As an Enneagram 8w7, basically the high achieving, exciteable busybody in health we use that to help spur on others towards their goals, which took some time to understand because the descriptors of an 8 are exactly the most charming. As unhealthy we gravitate  towards the fears of being useless, helpless, or incapable, which is where I have found myself over the course of the past couple weeks. So why tell you all this?

The narrative had to change.

Every “type” of personality has their fears of never being good enough or valued or cared for. However, if you set up for a week where you are looking both outwardly and inwardly at everything you wish was different or didn’t like you won’t be able to love well. So whether you are 18 or 80, thin or plus-size, black, white or anyone else (literally if you are reading this you qualify because you are beautiful creation of an all-powerful and loving God) you have to question: can I love who God made me today? Not after I do this thing, or change that thing, but TODAY.

Here are four practical ways to help change the narrative and/or keep the perspective of just how beautiful and uniquely crafted YOU are:

1. Speak the truths of God over your life each morning.
   • Psalm 139:14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

   • Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of sin”

   • 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
2. Surround yourself with people who speak truth and life into your life. One of the biggest blessings of my day is the text I get almost every morning from one of my closest friends encouraging me about who I am in Christ.
3. Do have a focus on wellness. Do NOT obsess, but set out practical goals of how you are going to take care of yourself during the week. For example, making sure you make healthy snack choices, or are active for 30 minutes, 3x a week, or carve out space to process your week on paper or through a creative outlet. Set those goals and boundaries up ahead of time so you can engage with the week ahead to it’s fullest and your fullest potential.
4. Serve in the community. One of the biggest blessings, and ways to get outside of your own way of thinking is to get involved with the people, neighborhoods, and organizations around you. Taking care of this world is a team effort, and there is always something that needs to be cared for!

This morning waking up my mind immediately gravitated of what was lacking instead of embracing the beauty and truth that was already there and looking forward to the potential that God had in store.

It would be foolish to think that it is just a light switch, but set a reminder for yourself throughout the week to check in! So how are you today? Do you remember the truth and freedom you sit in?

If you’ve thought about it 100x and want to take the enneagram click here: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com

 

 

 

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Forever Taking Pictures of Your Food – Happy 3 Years Babe!

Today Jon and I turn 3. Something about 3 shifts my perspective. This year was the best one yet, however it came with a little dose of everything laughter, excitement, exhilaration, but also pain, growth, and surrender. Most importantly though, love. It sounds gushy and it kind of is, but we had to fight through some hard battles that only made us draw closer to our Father and each other.

Between the work grind and uncertainty, my mental and physical health struggles, and loss in his family the reality of humanity and man’s depravity was all too real this third trip around the sun together. But the Lord’s faithfulness was real tenfold. On days where collapsing on the bed was all we could do, where exhaustion caused tension in each word we said, when differing personalities bucked up against each other God breathed life into each and every moment.

All He asked us to do was show up for each other, and enjoy the moments.

We fought for each other and beside each other with Jesus always at the helm, and the result is beautiful: another year together, another year falling in love with each other.

So this won’t be the longest blog post ever written, but if you take away anything I hope it is this: never stop listening, never stop encouraging, never stop showing up even when you feel like you have nothing to give. You might not see it now but those moments matter!

Ben Stuart said always have something to look forward to together – we experienced Disney differently than ever before, Thailand, San Francisco & the California coast, a sleepy North Carolina beach town, Chattanooga for yet a 3rd year in a row, and so much more. The adventures were grand, but also in this year, Kali entered into our lives, job shift happened for me – again, Jon became obsessed with Enneagram which really has improved our communication exponentially – it’s not just hype. We cheered each other on, me with running and him with music, we tried SO much new food and are quickly gaining foodie status, and made the most of small moments. And whether grand or insignificant there is something really special about the details that make it all up.

We explored new places and met new faces, reached new heights and new depths, and it all sounds so poetic, but it is. Love stories are poetic – just take the Bible.

We are expectant for what the next year holds knowing that in a new house and new neighborhood along with new serving roles things will change, but however the chips may fall I look forward to growing stronger together, taking wild leaps of faith and breathtaking adventures together.

So here I’ll be forever taking pictures of your food.

Happy Anniversary Jon Woodson!