Focus

Link: Core Values
Focus: Holy Scripture (3/7)
Day: 03/95
Pathway summary: Study of the Word of God with expectation of Holy Spirit inspired revelation.
Justification: (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Psalm 119; John 16:7-15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
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Setup:
Continuing the Bible study on Love. I am regularly seeing myself be sweeter. And I can directly see the impact on my household.
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Prep:
I sense that today's evaluation of Love is to focus on how Scriptural tenets appear in practice.

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Execution:
I started off with research and started to really delve in - when I realized I hadn't prayed.  After quickly praying, I continued and realized my focus was awry - instead of practical applications of Love, the study began to focus on how to ensure your focus is correct. In particular, I used about half of Matthew 6.

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Day 3 Conclusions / Thoughts

This Bible study has been interesting in that, unlike almost every other read-the-Bible-iteratively approach I've been actually excited and interested in what God would reveal.  And it was thus a beautiful time to be brought a little low. Because my focus was off, my focus on focus caused me to lose focus. Ahem.

So I prayed, asking God for forgiveness, and started anew.

I began with the idea that "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" was a great way to apply the tenets of love - a quick Bible search revealed that it only showed up in one place ... which happened to have applications, focus remediation, the Lord's Prayer, and several points about perseverance and rewards.  Leave it to God to take my focus failure and teach me something as well as nudging me in the direction which would actually answer my real question.  Ya'ay God.

Focus is terribly important because it is an easy way for Love to kind of leak out of our perception. In so much as motive and attitude provide solid footing for actions of Love, focus provides for the direction of our footfalls.  You still need a feedback system to ensure the attitude and motive stay aligned to God's intent - and focus offers leading-edge feedback.

So my call to action is to try putting these three into place all throughout the day - as regards to relations with my family, my co-workers, my clients, my neighbors, and any strangers I meet.  And I claim that any success I have in this regard will be due to God's work in me - whether over the course of my life up to this point or the changes He has wrought over the last three days,

I look forward to seeing what God has for me next!

Attitude

Link: Core Values
Focus: Holy Scripture (2/7)
Day: 02/95
Pathway summary: Study of the Word of God with expectation of Holy Spirit inspired revelation.
Justification: (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Psalm 119; John 16:7-15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
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Setup:
Continuing the Bible study on Love. I am deeply encouraged by what I've seen in the last 24 hours.
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Prep:
I have a few directions in my head (all love related and am excited about what God has for me).

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Execution:
I prayed and recorded the results in a stand-alone paper journal.  In particular, I focused exclusively on John 21:15-17

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Day 2 Conclusions / Thoughts

It wasn't until today that I realized attitude is fundamentally pre-motive. Another way of thinking of it is to consider it the shape into which one's motives will grow. If you don't have a good/sweet attitude, then random/copious acts of love will potentially be as absent of depth / meaning as if you hadn't done anything.  It's fascinating how all of these things I thought were unrelated are deeply related.

In the same way that motive informs our actions, I believe attitude informs our motives. I see this evidenced in John 21 where Jesus is talking to Peter - Peter is having to face what he chose earlier (denied Christ) and Jesus makes some interesting choices. He starts out asking Peter if he loves him with agape love - Peter doesn't actually answer - instead replies "yes, I love you with philios love". Jesus' response to this is to Feed his sheep.  The word for "feed" used reflects Jesus' command to take care of the spiritual well-being of the people.  My take-away is that Jesus is trying to inform Peter's attitude - by giving him something specific to do to help Peter grow into "agape" love of Christ.

In the past 24 hours I got my answer about how to be more loving - the answer appears to be that, in the wanting, more attention is given on when an opportunity exists to be loving, increased discernment when one chooses to NOT be loving (even if only in retrospect), and generally more patience. I was not expecting any of that.

I also spent all day looking forward to this Bible study. I see Christ is actively changing me - and I pray that when we're through with the easy changes that God will keep nudging me through the hard as well.

Writing down things has also helped - without the documentation, it would never have occurred to me the role attitude plays in being a moral person.  It also explains why God has us "take every thought captive" and "be joyful, praying without ceasing" - because these actions lay the groundwork for our motives.

Seeking

Link: Core Values
Focus: Holy Scripture (1/7)
Day: 01/95
Pathway summary: Study of the Word of God with expectation of Holy Spirit inspired revelation.
Justification: (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Psalm 119; John 16:7-15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
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Setup:
Considering the topic, it would seem to be prudent to have a bible study curriculum of some kind; starting off I have none.  As my ultimate goal is to be a better Christian (and with the immediate application of being a better husband, a better father, a better son, etc.), I elect to learn what the Bible says about love.  I suspect I have glossed over much of what the bible says ... so I shall review it, pray on it, and (as stated above) expect the Holy Spirit to reveal something.
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Prep:
A quick web search on Bible studies on love reveals that more people have written more on this one subject than I anticipated.  Not surprising - as love is earnestly hard to master.  We are counseled to love God with all of ourselves. And we are told that Jesus IS love.  It thus, must be worth the study.

I'm also sticking with 1 Corinthians 13 - unless I feel guided to meander.  Cause I'm tryin' to grow - I earnestly want to be open to what the Holy Spirit has for me

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Execution:
I began by praying, asking for revelation, clarity, focus.  I recorded my thoughts, notes, and conclusions in a separate paper notebook. Today's Bible study revealed some things about 1 Corinthians 13. In particular, the first three versus focus on motive.

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Day 1 Conclusions / Thoughts

I know I personally tend to spend most of my time/energy doing the following: talking/singing/making music, knowing/thinking/praying, sacrificing/donating. In essence, no matter what you're doing, if your fundamental motives are not based on love, you will not last, nor will your works matter, nor will your voice/value endure. Our culture values all of these things - we have shows centered around how pretty someone sounds. how smart they appear, how reliable they are, how able they are to foretell (using mysticism or mathematics), how generous someone is - etc.

Ironically, we all know that anyone who isn't motivated by love is functionally doing for the wrong reason; however, it is easy to forget that in the moment ... especially if you're the one acting.  How easy it is to be engaged in an activity that seems to be helpful but ... we're motivated by wanting to be elsewhere, or attracted to someone (physically or emotionally or otherwise), or waiting our turn to talk (instead of just listening), or donating goods and clothes for the tax write-off or simply for de-cluttering.

I suspect it is easy to over-apply this lesson ... and I recall I am notorious for taking an initial, fundamental realization/revelation and applying it WAY too generously. So I will leave for now - save for one earnest acknowledgement. It is so great that God still wants to talk to me. I ... don't *feel* closer just yet ... but I fully acknowledge that the revelations from today's study were from Him.  So, so grateful that He still wants to talk to me. <3