Surrender

I think the word surrender causes some major issues for most people. What does it make you think of? Giving up. Giving in. Losing. Weakness....

But when used in the right way, surrendering can be a great act of strength. It takes a lot to be able to sacrifice for others. To sacrifice your goal in favor of another's. To sacrifice your very will for that of God's.

And surrendering does not always mean giving up or giving in. It often means giving up YOUR approach and opening yourself to other ways of achieving the same end ; giving up your way of doing something to try doing it someone else's way.

Surrendering can be scary. But it doesn't need to be. We just need to really think. Think about what we want to accomplish. Think of all the ways we could do that. So many of us get stuck in a narrow little box and have no idea how to get out. And we are kept prisoner in that box by social opinion and advice from friends and family. More often that not we are kept prisoner by our own egos.

In my life I have learned that surrender can be a beautiful thing. But that still doesn't make it any easier! Even though we are under the illusion that we have total control over our lives, we DON'T. Hear that? We don't have any control over how things turn out. We have influence, yes, but not control. We only have control over our own thoughts and ideas...that's it. So of course it's scary to even consider giving that up too. But it can bring a peace that had been elusive up until that moment of surrender.

I am going to go and think of all of the ways surrendering would help me in my life. Off the top of my head I know that my parenting and marriage could use a good dose. How about you?