Nov 29 2023 18 mins
In this week's episode, which is a solo, I want to share the word "burdens" as an acronym. I think this is particularly important as the holidays are here and we can feel overwhelmed by the expectations we place on ourselves and the expectations we try to meet that are placed upon us by others. The point of this is to demonstrate that it is our choice to allow our own (sometimes unreasonable) expectations and those of others to weigh us down or not. Drawing from seven decades of I want to share how we can be:
B: Blinded to the blessings around us as we try and try to meet expectations.
U: Undermined by our own hand in moving forward in God's purpose for our lives.
R: Reaching and reaching for yesterday in the retro reach posture that deceives us into believing all things were once flawless and wonderful.
D: Dwelling on making sure everyone has their expectations met.
E: Envying what we think others have that we do not.
N: Seeing ourselves as never enough no matter how hard we try.
S: Subtracting the Holy Spirit from the equation and thereby missing what God really wants us to see and enjoy.
To be burdened by unreasonable expectations of others and ourselves brings us out of joy for the Holiday Season and into a frantic race to fulfill everything but our purpose in being here at all. I hope you can identify with some of these elements of burdening ourselves and choose to release those burdens to enjoy this celebratory season.
The website for Stephen Ray Watts and the band Dotsero https://dotseroband.com
The website to connect with Laura Padgett https://lauralpadgett.com