Monday #soulcare: a childhood vow is a conscious or unconscious agreement you make with yourself as a child about how the world MUST be in order for you to be ok. We typically make these vows to avoid pain or seek pleasure. They come out of a wound or a lack in our childhood...
...they serve us well when we are kids, but they restrict us as adults. Like clothes we grow out of, if we don't shed them, they become constricting. When under pressure, or tired or feeling attacked, you revert to your childhood vow and live by it rather than by faith....
...you can uncover a vow by listening to your self talk and listening for superlatives or absolutes or 'singular truths that you make into a universal truth.' Naming and repenting of a vow can be massively freeing and can take time and work...
My friend @Jimherrington spoke eloquently about vows on this episode of my podcast. Jim and @trishaltaylor also host a wonderful podcast well worth a listen. Links below.
One of my clients was talking about a newly formed staff meeting and one team member's tendency to critique and shut down others' ministry approaches. Ie, they not only didn't like the approach, they found it utterly wrong.
They were utterly wrong.
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It reminded me of the HIGH importance of the team leader managing anxiety in a staff. When one person 'pounces on a peer' and it is left untreated in the room, the staff will no longer show up as themselves.
It is on the leader to redistribute the anxiety.
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Typically the 'pounce' is spoken in a way that communicates, 'this is the end of the matter.'
People who are rigid communicators, people who speak emphatically, who aggressively critique another in public....they communicate 'no one else gets to say anything.'
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One of the most powerful ways to practice #differentiation is through the lens of responsibility. What is mine to carry, what is theirs, what is God's? Not an easy question to answer, but always worth a pause and reflection.
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When we're in anxiety's grip, we tend toward hiding, avoiding or blaming or, yikes, the trifecta of all three. But practicing differentiation forces us to clarify responsibility. The authors of Scripture remind us again and again that we can control one thing: self.
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So we can make a list of the things we are anxious about and then a check box set of columns.
How much control do I have over what I am anxious about?
We get reactive when we don't get a false need that feels like a real need.
What do you think you need that you don't really need?
We all have dozens of false needs and when we don't wrangle our many false need, they pile up and get the better of us and wear us out.
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Some of my false needs: 1. I need everyone I meet to like or approve of me. 2. I need to be understood. 3. I need to make the person in front of me feel better. 4. I need to always know what to say or do in any situation. You MUST see me as a smart person.
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We end up getting bigger or smaller than human sized.
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Some of us, when we are reactive get 'bigger.' We must have the last word. We no longer listen to learn, we now listen to advise, fix, correct, or mansplain. We get aggressive, we dominate the space. Some of us literally make ourselves bigger.
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Some of us get smaller than human sized. We no longer feel safe to be exactly ourselves in that space. We do not speak up in the meeting, we flatter rather than tell the truth, we get quiet.
Some of course get bigger or smaller, depending on the circumstance and people.
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