The Need to Perform

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

“Voices of culture and expectations of others will always lead you to a feeling of inadequacy or a need to perform.”
                                                       Desperate by Mae and Clarkson

    How do you feel you need to perform? What pressures do you put on yourself?

    Why do you feel inadequate? Who are you unnecessarily comparing yourself to? Competing with?

    Will you talk to God today? Will you ask God to help you discern between the voice of culture and His voice? Between the voice of others and His voice? 

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

Be Gentle

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**
 
    Be gentle to yourself today. You treat yourself harsher than others. You do not perform up to an expectation and you attack yourself with the most unkind words and thoughts.

    Be gentle with yourself, be patient. Expect that you will not meet all your expectations or the expectations of others. When you fail, be gentle with yourself and remember the gentleness with which God cares for you.

    Be gentle.

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