What a sweet Sunday afternoon today has been. I’ve been feeling slightly under the weather, and so to give my body rest I’ve been taking the day pretty easy and it’s turned out to be a lot of what I never knew I needed. Lattes, reading, napping, talking, annnddddd spending some time thinking about my top 5 values !!!!
Thinking through values is something that The World Race feels is super important, and at the beginning of the race they had us create team values with our teams. I’ve also seen some more of my squadmates write about their personal values which has sparked a new interest in doing that for myself as well, but I’ve never taken the time to really sit down and think about it. But then today, my squad leader and I randomly stumbled upon the topic and dove into it more together and I LOVED IT!!
I walked through a short process with her that helped me consider many different values and then narrow it down to my top 5. I know that these values are constantly changing and developing as we grow, but for now, I felt like these 5 embody my heart posture pretty well. One of the best parts of this whole process was feeling really known after deciding on these 5. I felt like I knew myself… haha how ironic. This was absolutely liberating, to feel like I know who I am. If you would have asked me a couple of years ago to give my top 5 values, I think I could have made something up, but wouldn’t have really been able to give you any solid reason for the “why” behind the values. The last couple of years have been a lot of growing up, a lot of self-discovery, and a lot of learning what it means to walk in confidence in my personality, in my identity, and who I am in Christ – which has been a really freaking cool process so far. So to actually be able to engage in an exercise that required me to know myself felt good. It felt like growth.
In no particular order, here are my top 5: wisdom, grace, hope, respect, and productivity.
After I picked these 5 I took some time to journal the why behind each and here’s what I got 🙂
Wisdom: I think that I value wisdom because I want and strive to walk in truth. I find myself listening to podcast after podcast, reading book after book, and desiring mentorship because I desire to be better. I also think that I have seen both people who walk in wisdom and people who don’t, and I just admire those who walk in Godly wisdom so much. They seem to be well rounded, knowledgeable, experienced, have asked the tough questions and hear from The Lord. They walk in freedom and have emotional intelligence. They don’t always do the easiest thing but their choices pay off. They invest in others. I think that it’s no joke that the Lord desires for us to ask for His wisdom, because when we walk in that our lives are different. I want to be like that. None of us are perfect in this area of course, but you can tell when someone is seeking a life of truth.
Grace: I’ve always felt deeply about grace. It’s pretty easy for me to feel really deep empathy for others, (which sometimes is a really hard thing to handle lol) and I think that because of the empathy I can hold, it’s easy for me to want to extend grace. I can’t say that grace is always a natural reaction, but the more I’ve learned about life, and sat in my own brokenness, and sat with others in their brokenness, the more aware I am of the NEED for grace. People need grace. People need to know the love of the Father that offers so much of this grace. Shame off. You’re not too far gone. This is the gospel. Dang – it makes me think about the job I had working in community mental health that I had right after college graduation. I saw a lot of shitty things. The need for grace was so deep. I just pray that my ability to extend grace to those around me only points them towards the unexplainable grace of God.
Hope: This hits home because of my story. I’ve been in and out of seasons with fear, where I’d throw myself into anxiety attacks at the thought of being stuck in darkness. This has been a long process, but what’s really set me free is the promise of…. hope. One of my most favorite verses is in the Christmas story – Luke 2:10 “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born. He is the Messiah, the Lord.” Talk about hope. Jesus is here. Then there’s that Christmas song, “a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices”. Like wow. Why do I believe in Jesus? Because of hope. I don’t have to be afraid. I’m free.
Respect: I feel loved when I feel respected. This probably has something to do with a lot of insecurity that I’ve walked through with not feeling like my voice holds weight, and I’m learning that my identity isn’t rooted in whether or not I ‘feel’ respected by others. So – I def see that side to it. But, I still want to claim this as one of my top values because although it has the potential to maybe be unhealthy for me, I also think that it’s okay to admit that it’s one way I feel loved and something I value in others. I also just admire people who are respectable because they tend to embody steadfastness and strength. Like when you say to someone.. “wow, mad respect for you” (lol at the young slang) to someone it’s humbling. They’re worthy of respect because of the way they live their life. I want to be someone worthy of respect and I want to humbly be able to respect others.
Productivity: I just like to feel productive. This could also be an unhealthy value for me personally if I strived for it out of the wrong motives, but similar to respect, I also think it embodies really healthy aspects. I want to be productive with my thought life. Is this thought process healthy or not? Is it getting me anywhere? I also desire productivity in things that require discipline/self-control. Ex: spending time alone with the Lord in the morning, choosing to read a book instead of just scrolling on my phone, getting a work out in, not binge eating, etc. When I am able to “check” these things off my list I feel productive. I feel productive because I’m deciding to use my time more wisely. I’m not perfect at this, but I definitely strive to be better.
I by no means have this all figured out and I don’t walk in these values perfectly, but there are just some of my thoughts on where my heart is. I’m constantly learning more and more about the Lord and about life and about what I value.. so these ideas are shifting and changing and growing all the time
I hope this was kinda fun for you as it was for me! What are some of your values?
Much love,
Heather
