Tell Yourself a Better Story for 2022
—Grace & Truth Linkup
I’ve been telling myself a bad story the past few weeks. It’s about myself. And it’s negative.
It’s also (mostly) not true.
Sometimes when circumstances go awry, we turn in on ourselves.
We don’t even need evidence to prove it. We revert back to old childhood narratives or false accusations from the past or just place too much emphasis on our weak spots and forget our strengths.
The Story of You
I just finished a new book on the Enneagram by Ian Morgan Cron. It’s The Story of You: An Enneagram Journey to Becoming Your True Self.
In this book, Cron reminds me that:
“All transformation begins with story transformation.”
So as I read this book, I leaned in on how I need to change my story back to a better one. Cron’s “how to” method uses the rubric SOAR: See, Own, Awaken, and Rewrite.
For me as a type Five, Cron says that Fives can “subscribe to a story that looks nothing like the Story of God.” I don’t want do that.
Instead, he recommends that Fives cultivate our type’s Virtue, which is nonattachment. Seek a full range of feelings. Connect our overdeveloped minds with our underdeveloped body awareness. Give ourselves away more extravagantly.
“Trust that you have an abundance of yourself to give. You are more than enough.”
And that advice applies to all of us, regardless of our type.
God made each of us as more than enough. We have an abundance to give.
“Finally, believe not only in God, but also in yourself. You can do this.”
Leave the old stories behind. Believe in the more accurate story, the story that God tells about us.
You can do this. I can, too.
Happy New Year.
Featured Post—Reflect on God’s Grace
If this year has been a tough one for you, too, read Trudy’s post to reflect on the extra grace that God gives us when times are hard (and when times are easy).
“2021 REFLECTIONS ON THE GRACE GOD STILL GIVES US”
Then add your own blog links below.
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Read more here on 20 Ways to Practice the Enneagram for Spiritual Growth.
My thanks to Net Galley and HarperOne
for the review copy of The Story of You
I’m linking at these blog parties
1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.
2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.
3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).
We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.
MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
TAMMY KENNINGTON – Restoring hope. Pursuing peace.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
Now Let’s Link Up!
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter
May 2022 hold many blessings for you & your family Lisa!
Thank you for hosting,
Bless you,
Jennifer
I love the whole idea of reimagining our stories. Or re-titling them. Or whatever we need to do so that we see ourselves as Christ does.
God is keeping you on my heart every day friend.
Happy New Year, Lisa! I’m featuring you on today’s post …
http://www.lindastoll.net/2022/01/porch-29-5-steps-to-move-you-forward.html
Seeing ourselves and our stories through our own lenses instead of God’s truth, can sure distort our images! May 2022 and beyond be full of God-lens moments for you, Lisa. I distort the image of myself too, mostly through my undone lists. As a seven, I have so many interests, I can get scattered and then feel like a failure! The ennegram has helped me feel free from judgement of self!
I’m easily prone to subscribing to a negative story of myself, too, Lisa. Thank you for reminding me to be in “God’s story,” not my own. Love and blessings of subscribing to God’s story and of many answered longings and prayers!
P.S. Thank you again for linking to me.
wow that book really impacted you. I felt all year the same: I am talking to myself with lies. Untrue narratives. One Question I ask more frequently now is IS THAT TRUE? Usually it isn’t. Hard to learn though. May we both know more deeply that we are children of God!
We definitely need to pay attention to the stories we tell ourselves. They can have such an impact for good or for bad. Thanks for sharing Trudy’s encouraging post – I loved it too! Hope you have a happy New Year!
Lisa, never doubt your worth.
You are loved by God, your family and the blogiverse that we share.
AND REMEMBER….
God doesn’t make junk!
Dear Lisa, I love the way you use the Enneagram to find inspiration and break through barriers. Like an engineer might say: the proof of a tool is in what you can build with it.
I’m sorry you went through a dark time this bleak midwinter, and glad you found a way out, back into the light.
Happy New Year, dear Lisa!
My life coach says “If you’re gonna tell the story make yourself the star”. That’s her way of reminding us not to villainize everything we do. We do have the power to rewrite our story including the grace of God and the Romans 8:28 to it all.
I appreciate your honesty here, Lisa. I fall into the same trap at times, and we both need lots of grace to rejoice in who God made us to be.