Legend, aka my momma, has it that when I was little, still highchair worthy, she and my dad had a post work/ post pick up my brother and I routine that mostly centered around me and my need to eat. Apparently they would divide and concur, letting my older brother be the independent and clearly not as hungry child. My dad would put me in the chair, straps on, bib on. My mom would heat the food and get me fed. Just my dad preparing me for dinner was enough for me to be calm and cooperative. Otherwise it seems, had they tried to wait and feed my brother and I at the same time, or maybe just took their coats off and breathed, it seems….I’d have a meltdown.
I’m an adult now, no more high chairs, and I’ve come to love my wooden dining table by the windows where so much gorgeous sunlight gets to pour in. Most days I’m really good with a nourishing rhythm of meals and snacks…and other days I underestimate my ability to be patient and thoughtful in the ways I nourish my body. I may not have a meltdown, but I can be quick to take a shortcut to curb my appetite.
I don’t know about you but I have been learning the more I honor who I am, the more I make time to honor who I am and what I need to be well. The more I accept who I am with compassion, tenderness, and grace, the more I can wisely prepare and plan in ways that allow me to live on and with purpose. The more I neglect my needs, minimize, dismiss, or under estimate how I’ve been created, the more like likely I am to have a “meltdown”- do things that don’t actually meet my needs and honor how I’ve been created in the long run.
I just want to encourage you to pause and really think about who you are and how you were created to be. What rhythms in your life honor that person? What relationships honor that person? What jobs, foods, sleep patterns, clothes, jewelry, music, books, podcasts, classes, hobbies, etc. honors that person? What rhythms don’t? What habits, practices, ways of being dishonor how you’re made, who you are created to be? Which ones are temporary fixes that only undermine and mock the real you and absolutely have the makings of a meltdown? And who is you’re “mom” or “dad”, the people in your life who know you enough to support you in being who you were created to be?
My hope for you today is that you recognize that you have been created to be exactly who you are and the best thing you can do is cultivate a way of living that honors that, trusting, and knowing, the Creator is acutely aware of how and why you are who you are and gives you the grit and the grace to thrive as you.