The Habit of Surrender

I’ve read many times that it takes 21 days to form a habit. Some habits are easier to form than others. Like my red licorice habit. That was instant really. I’m enjoying a few pieces even as I write this post.

But then there are habits that, well, have taken me years to work on. I call those the habits of surrender.

Surrender is defined as to yield, to relinquish in favor of another.

That kind of yielding is daily for me. That’s where the habit comes in. It’s a daily choosing of laying down what feels safe and comfortable. On the other side of laying down is choosing to rise up and do the thing being asked of me.

In this season of my life that thing is writing. Writing is hard for me. Hard! I didn’t grow up longing to be a writer. I don’t have notebooks full of journal entries filled with thousands upon thousands of words. Yes, l love to read, but writing…not so much.

When God birthed faithWalk, Ministries, I didn’t think I wanted to be a speaker either. That was another habit of surrender to be learned. But now I’m passionate about encouraging women in their walk with Jesus. I can’t imagine doing anything else. Each time I said no to fear and yes to getting behind that podium, God grew confidence and bravery in me.

It was three years ago when I felt the God nudge to start writing. Three years. Some habits of surrender are a down right battle. Today it continues to be a daily surrender for me to lay down my fear of writing and write. Some days I don’t write. Some days fear wins.

This quote on the Allume blog hit me deep and gave me great clarity in my call to write. Maybe it will for you, too.

When you’re called to write out of obedience rather than a love for the craft.

The bottom line of surrender is obedience to the One who has called me, has called you. Comparing myself to how others write and the reasons they write, is basically a huge waste of time. The time I’ve been spent doing just that keeps me in a stuck place where fear wreaks havoc on my soul. And I’ve let it.

These days that’s happening less and less. Praise God! Oh, I have my moments, but I’m grateful for every baby step of surrender that leads to obedience. This 31 days blog series is what a habit of surrender looks like.

Are you working on a habit of surrender? Let’s do this together.

 

This is day 18 of 31 days to Living Bravely. You can check out the series here.