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Control ... I Want It!

I've been thinking a lot about control lately. How much I want to have it in conjunction with how few things are actually in my control. I don't know about you, but this is a huge point of contention for me in prayer. I want certain things in my life, I don't want to have to wait another 10 years or even 5 years to be married and have a family. I wrote about this a few weeks ago when I was trying to love my crazy life rather than fight against myself (check it out).

It's come up even more this week though with work and life and Lent. That's really the sticking point for me now. Lent 2016.

There are so many things I cannot control in my life. My metabolism, my family, friends, boys, my parish, plus a million and one other things. So I'm trying to discipline the things that I do have control over so I can more easily embrace the things I don't have control over.
  1. I can control what I put into my body and whether I exercise every day or not. I can do something about my health and about my attitude concerning health. This is going well ... I just need to keep my perspective.
  2. I can control whether I practice the piano every day - not whether I am naturally talented or not. I get so much joy from playing the piano - I can't believe I let it sit there in my living room collecting dust. Well, no longer!
  3. I can control whether I schedule Daily Mass into my calendar or not. Although life does get busy - and sometimes my day over takes me, I don't work in an emergency room whether things are life and death - I can take an hour to drive to Mass, be with Jesus, and drive home - and still eat lunch.
  4. I can control my attitude regarding my single state in life. I cannot control whether this boy wants to date me or that one wants to just talk on the phone or this one wants whatever... I can check my attitude and give it over to the Lord and ask him to "Let me what what He wants for me."
  5. I can control how I interact and relate to my family. I cannot control whether they speak to one another or not. I cannot fight their battles for them, but I can offer it up in prayer and ask the Holy Family to make my family holy.
  6. I can control whether I do a phone block every day to follow up on incoming leads and new prospects. I can control whether I follow up with customers and do what I say I will do. I cannot control whether they buy from me. I can improve my selling skills - I cannot force people to buy from me.
  7. I can control my attitude, my responses, my reactions, and my actions. I cannot control my feelings, other people's reactions or actions. 
** update ** as I'm reading past blog posts, past Katie wrote about this before... will she ever learn to trust her Guardian Angel? (Oct 2014) **

All of the things I cannot control I need to let go. I need to give up to the Lord - the only being who has this whole world in his mind all of the time. I can only do what I can do - and that is all I can do. I cannot control the world.

That's a hard statement for this Type A perfectionist to wrap her mind around, but I'm doing it one small discipline at a time this Lent and hopefully will be closer to the Lord because of it by Easter.

After typing, realizing there are 7 things I can control - so linking up with all the bloggers here.
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Comments

  1. Laura February 15, 2016 at 7:55 PM

    Amen! Control is the ultimate battle we have with God, isn't it? I feel like it's a tug of war sometimes. But when you realize that life is better how God's planned it, there's the moment of relief. We don't have to fight it. It SO much easier said than done though. Like seriously. I like how you point out our responsibility, and how we CAN make little changes. These are such great things to work on! Thanks for pointing these out, because I know I could work on them too. Hope your Lent is going well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KatieFebruary 16, 2016 at 5:34 PM

      Thanks Laura!! Control is such a tough target for me!

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