Nicole's Rule Of Life

I love to learn from spiritual leaders and the disciplines they embed into their daily lives.  Here are a few that have inspired me.

Reading a psalm and a proverb each morning, remaining in one passage of Scripture for a full year, reading through the entire Bible each year, meditating each day on the teachings of Christ, fasting one day a week, choosing to completely unplug on weekends, conscious eating, and daily interceding over local and global issues in the news. 

Since it is my tendency to lean toward and linger in the contemplative disciplines I made the decision to refuse to avoid practises that address the other areas of my life. After all, I would not want to be accused of favouritism!

Enough preamble, here is the essence of my rule of life...

To know God (beyond head knowledge) and love Him (with body, mind, and soul) and reflect His love to others.

To live awake in the fullness of Christ with pure and simple devotion to Him.

To begin with, I plan to continue to build upon the two spiritual disciplines that I focused on in 2015.  

Simplicity and Solitude/Silence.

The art and habit of simplicity and solitude has taught me how to declutter (physically and mentally) to create space to hear and respond to the Beloved.  Learning to practise these disciplines over the past year has been the beginning of a beautiful relationship that I cannot do without!

I will also add the following sacred practises in 2016...

Self Care: 

To increase energy

Re-claiming Sabbath, Increasing sleep, Eating nourishing meals, Walking (preferably in nature)

Monthly personal retreats with God


Renewing My Mind & Heart:

To learn to love God with my whole mind and heart by relinquishing thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours that are not aligned with God's truth.  I want to learn to live consistently led by the Spirit, as a new creation, rather than by the flux of emotions and circumstance.

Daily - Reading and living the word

Daily -  Devotion to prayer

Daily -  Self-examination

Soul Care

Weekly - To be attentive to God's love, beauty and wonder all around me

Weekly - To create like my Creator

Community and Relationships

Weekly - connecting to a diverse community through arils and castles to share God's love and encourage others to live in Him.

As I was praying about my rule of life I felt God's nudge to include my relationship with my husband.  That one I will keep for us!

Well... so much for following my own advice of starting small!

Remember the rule of life is not about perfection it is about being in Christ and allowing Him to transform us. 


Glorious Father,

I thank you for speaking into various areas of my life that need renewed and transformed.  I ask that you may use this rule of life to reveal yourself and to enlighten my heart and mind with understanding to make me a new creation in you. Help me to trust in you when I get discouraged from mistakes or a lack of progress.  I want to live awake in the fullness of your love in order to live with pure and simple devotion to You!

In the powerful and gracious name of Jesus,

Amen












Comments

  1. Thank you so much for sharing your Rule(s) of Life Nicole.
    I think you are still doing better than me even if you think you didn't start "small." My personal list at this point is endless but you have made good points that have made me reflect.
    I am very good at maintaining certain disciplines and being practical as I go about them. By God's grace I have been able to read through the entire Bible for several years. It is a practice that I was able to to make into a habit. I find reading Scripture everyday is not the difficult part for me. However, having times of solitude and silence are the hardest part of my walk with God at this time in my life. I can't seem to shut my brain off, even when I am sitting quietly in my room meditating on God's word.
    So, for me in 2016 my Rule of Life is going to be to intentionally seek, create, and be ready for those precious moments of solitude and silence that my soul so desperately needs, all, of course with God's help and guidance!
    XOXO

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  2. Thank you Laura for sharing your personal discipline of reading through the entire Bible. I can relate to having difficulty shutting my brain off - so solitude has been a challenging discipline for me to enter into rest and listen for His voice. I will lift you up in prayer as you seek to create places to embrace the silence and enjoy being with God!

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  3. Thank you for your vulnerability Nicole. It's a blessing to share your journey and learn from it. I loved Ruth Haley-Barton's book, Invitation to Solitude and Silence, and now I have the title of another book of hers from your Top Ten List! :) I managed to maintain some discipline by only putting it on my Amazon Wish List. :)

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  4. Thank you for your vulnerability Nicole. It's a blessing to share your journey and learn from it. I loved Ruth Haley-Barton's book, Invitation to Solitude and Silence, and now I have the title of another book of hers from your Top Ten List! :) I managed to maintain some discipline by only putting it on my Amazon Wish List. :)

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  5. Thank goodness I am not the only one who has a growing Amazon book wish list! I am so glad you enjoyed Ruth Haley Barton's book and pray Belinda that you will be refreshed and overwhelmed by God's love in the still and quiet moments together in Him!

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