The Secret Life of Change is a planner that recognizes that changes begin within, and that it is a battle. Therefore the battle must be won within. It recognizes that such battles are most successful with planning and prayer.
It recognizes that changes must be orderly, enduring, planned, and persistently consistent, while also being immune to triggers and stress. This is true empowerment. Most importantly, it recognizes the power and spiritual value of humility and patience.
This planner is a tool to help you to be victorious in allowing Christ to heal and bring success to your life. The tools we will need to develop are discipline and diligence and being able to stick with a routine. When we develop healthy habits of routine, we can be framed by the sacramental life of the Church which allows us to participate in the healing of our souls which will allow us to become healthy members of society. But most importantly it will help us to be able to be in the presence of God, to be supportive family members, and to manifest talents that God has gifted to us so we can provide for ourselves and others.
Most people know that from the word disciple comes discipline. A disciplined person is one who is persistent in their role as a disciple. Diligence is another interesting word. For within it is included the concepts of reading, listening, teachings, reverence and piety, being steadfast, learning, obedience, taking care of, being assiduous, to choose, to bind, and interestingly enough, to love. Don’t believe it?
Middle English: via Old French from Latin diligens, diligent - 'assiduous' from diligere 'love, take delight in'.*
And strangely enough, this is the opposite of sloth. I’m going to venture and say here that diligence is a love behavior that expresses devotion and delight in a God who loves you and wants the best for you. To be obedient to God is to enter into a relationship of love reciprocation…and to be obedient to God is to participate in the care of your soul to His delight.
To be slothful on the other hand is a manifestation of self-loathing and self-hatred, and a lack of belief in oneself. It is to be disobedient to God’s care of your soul, to His best intentions, purposes and plans for your life.
Yes, Sloth is a type of disobedience to God’s own belief in you, dear soul.
Furthermore sloth, in the many ways it manifests through our many wounds is the way that the enemy of our souls leads us away from doing the things we need to do heal our lives. Putting things off for another day, being powerless against triggers in our lives—learning how to retrain these behaviors will take time and patience while enduring the suffering that comes with change, and it will take faith. Most importantly the faith will be manifested by our discipleship and diligence.
What I just said is like a circular argument that can only have real-life logical truth in the spiritual life. But it is true, nonetheless. This planner will be an aid to helping you heal your relationship with yourself, with God, with family and with the human race in general, those you love and those who are under the sway of the enemy.
While this planner can help you “make routine” your learning of a new skill to better provide for yourself and others, it is important that you remember this planner is about the healing journey that will help you obtain those goals. You will be able to customize this planner to where you happen to be in your journey. A wise man once told me: “Start small.” Do not fall into the trap of wanting to do everything immediately or expecting changes we are not ready for yet. It is natural to want to change immediately everything that is harmful to us and our lives. We don’t realise that the small thing will be the stepping stone that builds your house built on the Rock of Christ. It might be that for you developing a very simple morning and evening prayer rule is all you will be able to do. Be humble. Accept this truth. And persevere. You may be shocked to find that doing this tiny step may be the most consequential battle in your life…but don’t lose heart…You have God and all the angels fighting for you as you learn to fight for yourself.
It is my hope that this planner will help you develop the tools of discipline, diligence,and perserverance in acheiving consistancy and of hope, love and faith as you fight to participate in the redemption of your life in Christ.
With this planner you will identify habits you need to lose or develop. You are encouraged to, with the help of a trusted pastor, elder or priest, or counselor, create a 12-hour six-day schedule, (you are already doing this, you will just order it in a way that is more conscious and productive)* and to do this you will implement the 12 steps to humility by Saint Benedict of Nursa. His life story is very interesting and he developed these 12 steps for the laity of the Church, about 80 years after the fall of Rome when people were losing hope.
We are kinda living in similar times. By making a planner that incorporates ancient wisdom with modern self-assessment and planning tools we enter into the American tradition of self-improvement based on sound Christian principles.
May God continue to Bless you and guide you in your small steps to a healthy life.
xenia
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