Disordered Attachments

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Something I love gets taken away and I get MAD! I cannot find what I am looking for and I get FRUSTRATED. Something does not happen on my timeline and I RAGE.

    So many strong, negative responses come when my priorities are misaligned and often they cause pain to another.

    Ignatius of Loyola calls these “disordered attachments”.  Attachments that are out of order. These can be good things, but there are disordered, not in the right order of priority. (aka “idols”)

    I would invite you to pray today. Ask God what your disordered attachments are. Pay attention to any great negative emotional swings. What is your heart attached to?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

The Gift of Forgiveness

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Oh to receive the gift of forgiveness! Forgiveness is a choice, yes and sometimes forgiveness is a gift, a beautiful gift! Having struggled with prolonged unforgiveness with someone close to me, I know what it does to a person. Bitterness, anger, and impenetrable thick walls grow in our hearts and there is little hope for anything different.

    This prolonged unforgiveness was met with the gift of forgiveness. It was something I asked for. I did not ask for it nobly or humbly but desperately. My prayer was, “God, I can’t do this, I don’t think I even care if nothing changes. So, if you want something to change, you’ve gotta do it.” God did want something to change and He gave me the gift of forgiveness. Utterly unexplainable other than “God did it.” This is not a formula prayer by any means, just my experience.

    Forgiveness is a choice, definitely. Forgiveness also comes in the form of a gift. Is there prolonged unforgiveness in your life? How have you prayed about it? Do you even care? No matter how you pray, I encourage you to make it an honest prayer, no matter what. You never know when forgiveness may come as a gift.

**Sit in silence again for as long as is available to you.**

The Blindness of Anger

**Before you begin reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for 1 minute.**

    You've heard it said love makes you blind. So can anger. Anger can make you blind. It can make you blind to hope, to possibilities, to redemption and resurrection. Anger can make you blind to transformation. Anger makes you blind to goodness and to peace. It makes you blind to joy and gentleness. It blinds you to the opportunity to forgive. It blinds you to the opportunity for healing. Anger consumes so that all you see is anger and its close companion, bitterness.
    Anger can be a good thing. It can reveal something that is wrong, unhealthy or something that needs to change. Anger can lead to justice and freedom.
    Anger can also be blinding. It can blind to that which is good. Does anger play an unhealthy role in your life? If so, how has it blinded you? Spend some time in prayer, asking God to show you if anger has blinded you.

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**