By Sara Lewis
The spiritual theme for March has been “Commitment” Many folks who engaged with this theme this month found this exercise from the theme packet meaningful:
Five Commitments to Yourself
It’s hard to imagine keeping commitments to others if we can’t keep commitments to ourselves. In fact, many say it is loyalty to ourselves that ultimately gives us the strength, groundedness and self-confidence needed to follow through on the promises we make to those around us. And yet we rarely devote the same level of intentionality to self-commitments that we give to our commitments to others. So let’s use this month to be more intentional about the promises we make to ourselves!
First identify three commitments you’ve already made to yourself. We bet it will be harder than you think. Very few of us carry our self-commitments at the forefront of our awareness. But the importance of doing so can’t be overstated. As Stephen Covey has said, “Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.” If you find this harder than you expected, enlist a loved one or trusted friend. They can probably name your existing self-commitments easier than you can.
Next identify two new commitments you want to make to yourself. Odds are they’re long overdue. Then write all five of your commitments on a 3*5 card and place it on your bathroom mirror, bedside table or desk for the remainder of the month. Treat this as both an act of awareness and an act of accountability.
To help you along your way, spend some time with this wonderful poem by Laura Mancuso: My Commitments to Myself: https://www.uua.org/worship/words/meditation/my-commitments-myself
April’s theme will be “Becoming”. If you would like to receive the theme packet, full of quotes, links, questions, and exercises you can do at home, just join the Soul Matters group on OUUC Connect (Realm) or email Sara at faithdevelopmentministry@ouuc.org