The Importance of Praise and Thanksgiving
Valerie invites us into the spiritual practice of praise and thanksgiving, especially during this holiday season.
“Let them give thanks to the Lord for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race. For He has satisfied the thirsty and filled the hungry with good things.”
In September 1620, 102 men, women, and children left England to sail to the new land known as America. By the Spring of the following year, over half of those people had died from illness and deprivation. The next Fall, after a successful harvest, the remaining pilgrims celebrated a three-day feast to thank God for his faithfulness and goodness to them. This is the origin of what we celebrate every 4th Thursday in November- Thanksgiving.
One of those pilgrims, William Bradford, who sailed on the Mayflower to America, quotes portions of several Psalms, including Psalm 107, in his journal regarding the journey that he had experienced. His journal entry is a praise and thanksgiving for God and what he had provided for them, even amid struggles and loss.
As we approach Thanksgiving 2023, over 400 years from the story of the pilgrims and our country’s beginnings, it seems like a good time to consider the importance of praise and thanksgiving, specifically to our creator, God.
Both praise and thanksgiving are commanded in the Bible, but there is an important difference. Prayer, worship, praise, and thanksgiving are often intertwined, but at its simplest, praise can be described as acknowledging and appreciating who God is, and thanksgiving is thanking God for things he has done.
Psalm 145:3 tells us, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. (ESV)
We are commanded to praise God and know he is worthy of praise, but how often do we do it? Right now, can you think of any attributes of God worthy of praise? His faithfulness, provision, generosity, and patience are a few that come to my mind. The Bible is full of verses telling us of his attributes, and thinking about these is a wonderful way to know him better and grow in faith. When we take the time each day to praise him, it helps remind us that we are merely human and that He is a great God for us and with us. Sending this message to our souls is reassuring and can bring peace even in distress.
“We can always find a reason to praise. Situations change for better and for worse, but God’s worth never changes.”
We are also commanded to thank God for all he has done. Right now, can you think of things God has done or is doing in your life? Giving me breath to live, unlimited forgiveness, and hearing and answering my prayers are a few things that come to mind. Humans are forgetful, and it’s important that we remember to thank God for the things he has done for ourselves, others, and our world.
When we accept the invitation to praise and thank God, our thoughts focus on His power and goodness, among other things. In a world that is so often calling our attention to things that bring worry, anxiety, and distress, you can see how obeying these simple commands can bring good things to your mental health and the health of your very soul.
Entering into and participating in praise and thanksgiving is simply a choice. God’s commands are for our flourishing, but we are given the freedom to participate or not. When I look at the responses of people like William Bradford, who endured great hardship and yet are able to respond with praise and thanksgiving, I can see that being intentional to make these a part of my daily life is not only easy but they are also very valuable for a life well lived.
Here’s to a journey filled with praise and thanksgiving!
The Healthy Soul: Present with God
Valerie invites us into the practice of being present with God — not just for one point in time, but throughout our entire day.
If you’ve spent much time here with me on the topic of soul care, you will quickly start to see a theme. So much of soul care is about paying attention. We often live at a frenetic pace and if we don’t we often fill our lives with noise. Noise from social media, news, podcasts, and other forms of media. When we are feeling overwhelmed we might go on a vacation or have a staycation where we fill our day with fun things only to hop back on our treadmill called life, shortly after.
While we may be enjoying or trying to enjoy the “good life” we still have that sinking feeling of discontent, stress, anxiety or depression.
Where have we gone amiss?
In all of our living, it is quite possible that we miss that which is the most life giving, enjoyable part of life: the presence of God.
If you are His child, you have been given the greatest promise known to man: “I will be with you always.” (Psalm 16:8, Joshua 1:9, Matthew 28:20)
Another interesting aspect to soul care is that it is always free, easy and available to all of God’s children. In addition, so many of the ways we can care for our soul are counter to our culture. Spending time with God can actually sound boring, unattainable or something we just don’t have time to do. None of that is true.
The truth is that being intentional about practicing the presence of God is life-giving, life-changing and priceless!
Being intentional to be with God opens your life up to greater love, peace and (en)joyment!
Here are some ways that you can begin to practice the presence of God:
Every day simply choose to direct your mind toward God. This can be challenging at first as we are used to thinking of other things, but over time you will find that you can actually train your mind to start thinking of God on its own. Ask God to help you.
Surround yourself with things that remind you of God. This can be as simple as post-it notes in the inside of your kitchen cabinets, on the bathroom mirror or in the car.
Memorize one or more Scriptures that speak of God’s presence or any Scripture that encourages you in general.
If you have a Bible reading routine, before you begin, invite God to be with you and direct your time. He is already with you, but I have found it powerful to give the invitation as a way of saying “I want to be with you, I want to know you are here with me.”
If you practice Sabbath, be intentional to spend time resting just in the presence of God.
When you pray, don’t end your prayer and move on about your day. Instead, keep the conversation open. You might even say, “I’ll talk to you more in the car, (or kitchen or bathroom or where it is you are going to be).” Before you know it, you will be talking to Him throughout your day without much thought or effort- it will become a habit.
Lastly, if you want a little more inspiration, check out the little book, “Practicing the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence. I recommend the modern version, HERE
As always, it is a great idea to start with God and ask Him how you might be better at being present in God’s presence.
I am confident you will find that growing in His presence makes all of life brighter, better and more as He intended it to be.
Here’s to enjoying His presence on our journey!
Valerie
Cultivating a Healthy Soul: Silence and Solitude
Valerie shares about the practice of Silence and Solitude, ways to implement it, and resources to guide your journey.
Tired — almost fatigued. Restless. Irritable. Disconnected from God. This summarizes how I was feeling recently on an ordinary day. I could not point to an event or reason that was the cause of these less-than-desirable feelings. But because I am on the well-paved journey of listening to my soul, I stopped and asked myself and God, “What’s going on?” I then had that small, still prompting in my heart that said, “Silence and Solitude.” At that moment, those three words told me the answer and the solution to my problem.
I hope you are also on a journey to Soul health. Just like feeling pain in our bodies indicates a problem, we can listen to our souls as a way of knowing that our soul needs some attention. That day, all my feelings showed me that I needed to stop and ask my Father and Creator what was happening. He made me, knows me, loves me, and gave me the answer and solution that He knew I needed. He knew the answer I wouldn’t have come up with alone. In that moment, He became my Great Physician, healing my soul.
This spiritual discipline does not have to be costly or time-consuming. You don’t have to read a book or take a course to take advantage of its benefits today. Over 60 years ago, C.S. Lewis noted, “We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence….”
What is Silence and Solitude, and what does it look like?
Practicing the Way explains Silence and Solitude by saying, “Simply put, it's a moment of intentional time in the quiet to be alone with God.” And John Mark Comer, in The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, says, “Solitude is when you set aside time to feed and water and nourish your soul.”
At Soul Shepherding, they explain that “solitude is for being alone with God. It is completed by silence. In other words, if you are practicing solitude and silence, they come together as one experience. The purpose and joy of that experience is time doing nothing except being with God.”
How to practice Silence and Solitude
Here at Intentionally Ordinary, we like to keep things simple, practical, and easy to integrate into your life. So, at this time, I would like to give some simple tips on practicing Silence and Solitude in an easy but impactful way.
One way to start practicing Silence and Solitude is to take advantage of what Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline calls “little solitudes.” When we are paying attention, we can find hidden moments such as:
Those early moments before the family awakes — instead of thinking about the to-do list for the day, grabbing the phone, or even pressing the snooze button, be intentional to lie quietly and focus your mind on God.
Sitting in traffic — instead of listening to music, news, or podcasts, direct your thoughts to God. You don’t have to say or do anything, although I find it helpful to imagine Jesus sitting next to me or imagining myself in a meadow underneath a tree with Jesus. Use your imagination for what feels relaxing and comfortable to you.
Mealtimes — if you are by yourself, take a few moments to quiet your body and mind and focus on God and his presence. If you have a family, make it fun for the whole family and invite everyone at the table for a moment of silence. This can even help your children develop this skill at an early age.
As you seek to be more intentional about Silence and Solitude, you can try some of these ideas:
Create a “quiet place” to look forward to just “being.” In our home, we have a room where the children rarely play. It has a minimalist feeling, adorned with plants and a big front window for just sitting and enjoying the view. This place naturally brings me peace just by entering into the space.
If you have an outdoor area, create a space to be by yourself in the fresh air. This space can be as simple as a chair with a table and a potted plant. This outdoor space can even be a park, or maybe you have a church building or resort area that brings feelings of peace to your heart.
Take a Silence and Solitude walk by yourself, and bring intentional focus on seeing God in nature.
As you move deeper into this discipline, you can plan for longer times of planned silence and solitude, which might mean 10 minutes, a partial day, or even longer. Silence and Solitude nourish our souls; as you make it part of your life, your soul will crave it. If you are like me and occasionally get off track in caring for your soul, you will begin to see the signs as I did (with some help) when I felt less than great.
On that recent day when I was struggling, I thanked God for prompting me to spend time with Him in Silence and Solitude. I simply sat in my chair and quieted my body and mind, which led to feeling His presence and refreshing my soul. It was less than 10 minutes of outer and inward rest. So restoring!
Recommended Resources
If you are interested in digging deeper, here are some helpful resources:
Bible verses on Silence and Solitude: https://soulshepherding.org/bible-verses-on-solitude-and-silence/
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
Here’s to being on the journey to healthier souls — together!
Oxygen for Your Soul: Breath Prayers
Valerie shares the benefits of including Breath Prayers in your prayer practice.
Do you experience worry, anxiety, overwhelm, or trouble staying present in the moment? Do you desire to feel more connected to God on a daily basis? If you answered yes to any of the above, then Breath Prayers may be for you.
I was first introduced to Breath Prayers in my spiritual direction training last year. Since then, I have slowly made them a part of my rhythm of life. I have found them calming, grounding, helpful, and encouraging. As a Spiritual Director, I have shared them with my directees, family, and friends, and now I’d like to share them with you!
In Breath Prayer Guides by Bill Gaultiere, Breath Prayers are described as “a simple yet powerful practice to turn our rhythm of breathing in and out into a continual conversation with God.” Simply put, Breath Prayers are a way of taking deep, slow, intentional breaths as you inhale God’s word in and slowly out.
One of my favorite Breath Prayers is from the 23rd Psalm. This psalm is a favorite when I feel stressed from traffic (I live in Los Angeles!), overwhelmed with tasks, or feel the need to be in control in some area of my life. When I get any of those types of feelings creeping into my mind or showing up in my body, I first breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that I can find immediate help with a simple Breath Prayer. Here is how it works:
I take a slow, intentional, deep breath as I say to myself, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
I slowly exhale, releasing tension as I say to myself, “I have no need.”
I repeat until I feel the undesired feelings lessen or disappear.
My usual experience is to feel relief from the unwanted feelings. I have also found that it reorients my mind to the truths of God’s word and His presence with me. It’s a win, win!
There are many choices for Breath Prayers; here are a few of my favorites:
(Breathe in) Peace…(Breathe out) Be still…
(Breathe in) More of Jesus…(Breathe out) Less of me…
(Breathe in) Fear not… (Breathe out) God is my (Confidence, Helper, Shepherd)
When I have a little more time, I love to use this one at home where I find a quiet and comfortable place and close my eyes.
Breathe in God’s word, breathe out stress.
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know I AM
Be still and know
Be still
Be
I always feel more relaxed and peaceful after that one!
If you would like more information on Breath Prayers, please feel free to contact me at care@intentionallyordinary.com, or you can get more information from the Breath Prayer Guides by Bill Galtiere at Soul Shepherding’s website.
I hope you will try them and intentionally bring more peace, calm, and time with God into your life.
Enjoying the journey together!
Valerie
For more breath prayers
We include breath prayers in almost everything we do because we’ve experienced their incredible power and simplicity. Our Habit Formation Workbook includes a breath prayer for each habit of the body, and our Half-Day Spiritual Retreat Guide integrates a section where you can create your own breath prayer. We hope you get to experience the power of breath prayers with these incredible spiritual formation resources. Check them out!
Contemplative Prayer: Finding Rest and Direction
Valerie walks us through the practice of contemplative prayer.
I just recently finished reading Jan Johnson’s When the Soul Listens, Finding Rest and Direction in Contemplative Prayer.
Is rest and direction something your heart longs for?
As a Spiritual Director, I hear many different versions of the desire to find rest and direction. Overworked, overwhelmed and overspent are feelings that are all too familiar. Uncertainty, anxiety and decision fatigue weary our souls.
In her book, Jan describes contemplative prayer as “prayer in which we still our thoughts and emotions, and focus on God’s own self in an unhurried way”. As I read the description I am reminded how stillness and focus are so often lacking in our lives. Our world does not call us to rest. Many times physical rest is only a reaction to exhaustion. If we are resting our bodies, we are often not resting our minds but instead filling our minds with the images and noise of social media, news or entertainment. What about unhurried? Calm, peace and quiet often elude us. We are so busy achieving, producing, performing and experiencing that our lives feel more like hamster wheels or treadmills than actual living.
In contemplative prayer we are invited to slow down and rest and just be. In this practice, we are given space for transformation of the inner life. As our inner life is transformed, the outer world around us begins to have less of a grip on our lives. We can experience inner calm while living in a world that is going at a frenetic pace.
“To sit in silence before God restores the soul.”
If you would like to spend some time in contemplative prayer, below are some suggested ways to begin:
Plan on setting aside approximately 10 minutes to rest your mind and body.
Find a quiet place where you can be distraction free.
Choose a scripture verse, phrase or truth to meditate on.
Close your eyes and just be.
Allow distracting thoughts pass as you focus your mind on the things of God (scripture, verse, truth, character of God, etc).
Allow yourself to listen.
End your time with gratitude.
The above steps are meant to be a guide as a way to pay attention to God. It is meant to simply be a time to “quiet ourselves and simply enjoy God’s presence.”
Let us take steps to intentionally care for our souls, and make space for peace and joy at a deep and abiding level.
An Invitation to Listen to God
Valerie invites you into a simple listening practice in your scripture reading.
Here at Intentionally Ordinary we believe in the importance of caring for your soul. It might sound daunting, but I promise it’s not another thing to add to your to do list. Rather, nourishing your soul is about learning together and taking one small step at a time. Soul care includes slowing down, observation, awareness and listening.
In my first blog post, Intentional Attention we explored paying attention as an act of love. In my second blog post, Reflection: a Spiritual Practice for your Soul, we looked at paying attention to your life as a way of loving and caring for your soul. Hopefully, you are beginning to see the importance of paying attention as a way of soul care — paying attention to what I give my attention to and paying attention to my life and what is happening in it.
I want to encourage us to be intentional in strengthening our listening skills as a way of paying attention. Each day, each moment, choosing to be intentional about listening as a way of caring for our souls.
Today I would like to share with you a way of paying greater attention to what we read in the Bible. This way of engaging with scripture is known as Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina is Latin for “divine reading.” I think it sounds really fancy but in fact it is simply a way of slowing down and paying attention to scripture as a way of listening to God. I like to think of it as a way that helps me pay attention at a soul level.
Before we begin, I just want to remind you that paying attention in our scripture reading happens in many different ways and that Lectio is just a tool to help us in that endeavor. It is a rhythm that has been nourishment for my soul, and I hope it will be the same for yours.
Pick a portion of scripture to read and meditate on. It can be anything, but I recommend something that is either already familiar to you or a portion that makes sense to read in a chunk (2-5 verses). After picking my reading, I like to take time to pray and prepare my heart and mind to receive from God.
The rhythm of Lectio is to read, reflect, respond, rest:
Read your chosen portion of scripture.
Pick out a word or phrase that stood out to you and reflect (meditate) on that.
Read your chosen portion a second time and offer a prayer to God regarding the word or phrase that stands out to you.
Read your portion a third time and then rest (contemplate) and consider what is God’s personal invitation to you from the Scripture or simply spend some time in quiet rest, enjoying peace and calm.
If you like to journal, this is a great time to write down what you learned during the exercise. Recently, I Lectio-ed my way through the book of Romans and it was so fun and interesting to read my notes when I was done. This was a process that was slow (several months) and intentional and nourishing to my soul. I loved it so much that now I am popping over to the book of Philippians!
If you want more information or more direction, here is a link to a Lectio Divina guide with over 50 Scripture portions along with guided questions and prompts.
Here’s to listening well on our journey!
Soul Care for the Holidays
Try these simple practices to feel relaxed and at peace during the holiday season.
The holiday season can be filled with fun and merriment, laughter with friends, singing old familiar songs, and participating in favorite traditions of times past. This time of year can also be filled with financial stressors, heightened depression, anxiety and emotions, disappointments and fatigue.
The very nature of the season makes it a good time to be intentional about caring for and nourishing your soul. As good as that sounds, it may also bring up more stress just thinking about adding one more thing to your to do list. That is why today we are going to look at ways to nourish your soul without adding something to your already full holiday schedule.
Each of the gentle suggestions below can be done as you wind down your day and lay your head on your pillow.
End the day with gratitude - with a bigger to do list than normal, we can find ourselves focused on all the things that we need to do the following day or frantically remembering what didn’t get done. Instead of allowing your mind to focus on these things, end the day with a gratitude list. Pick, 5, 10 or even 15 things that you are thankful for. It’s not so much about the number, but rather about sending your thoughts down the pathway of gratitude. Ending the day with gratitude not only ends your day on a positive note, but it can also make the way for peaceful sleep as well as a pleasant way to start the next morning.
Receive empathy- maybe your day was not so great — you yelled at your kids, were not so nice to your husband and you found yourself more like the grinch than you’d like to admit. It’s times like these when we need to go to Jesus for empathy. My experience is that this is not a normal thing we think of to do during prayer. It’s quite simple and effective. Go to Jesus and tell him how you feel — be honest and vulnerable with all the feels. Then listen. Think about how Jesus understands and how he loves you. Spend your last waking moments basking in the love of Jesus.
Prayer of Examen- in its simplest form, this prayer is about looking back over your day and looking for those times and moments that you can identify God being with you, leading you, or helping you. This prayer can go much deeper, but my suggestion for the holiday season is to simply take a few moments to reflect back and look for God’s touch in your day.
Hopefully these ideas do not feel like one more thing to do but rather feel like a intentional peaceful way to end your day. Try one, two or all three. Mix it up! Do what feels good to your soul and experience a healthier, happier soul.