Day 8: Become Consciously Selective

Scripture to Memorize:
She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
Provers 31:12-13
Passage to Read
Same as above
Guided Prayer (brain is fried tonight so am using Donna's from the book)
Dear Lord, help me to become more selective! I want to be more selective about the music I listen to, the movies and television programs I watch, and the people I allow to influence my life. Holy Spirit, empower me to be more selective about where I invest my time, money, energy, and other resources. I want to work with eager hands--to be diligent and not self-indulgent. In particular, I recognize the need to be less self-indulgent of my taste buds and far more selective about the food I put in my mouth and on my table. Everything matters to you, and I want to please you in all things. Lord, you know sometimes I have trouble getting in gear in the mornings. I believe you'll give me extra energy as I'm faithful to awake a little earlier each day, just to spend time with you and to get myself and my family off to a good. start. Help me to providee for the basic needs of my family and others who rely on me for guidance. Lord, give me super-natural selectivity. Amen. {Donna Partow Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be: A 90-Day Guide to Living the Proverbs 31 Life, pg. 46-47}
Personal:
In this section today Donna talks about how the Proverb 31 woman was selective. She was careful in the selections she made. I need to be selective in the choice I make. This is something that I have just started to do in recent years. First it was the television programs and movies I watched. Next it was the magazines I purchased. Then it was following the latest fashion trends. When I was going up my family did not have much money and my mother made almost all of our clothes. While I was in grade school that really did not matter because we wore the same things that the other children in our rural community wore. However, when I started high school it became a BIG issue. I did not have the latest clothes as some of the city girls had. Many of my clothes were hand me downs. This became a very big issue and when I got married I we were still poor and so money for a lot of clothes just wasn't in the budget particularly because my husband and I drank and money was spent on food and booze, diapers and formula, later baby food. So when I was divorced and had more money for me I started to spend more money on clothes and when I was by myself and make more money than I ever thought possible I became a clothes horse and that habit continued. It is still something I struggle with.
Donna shared a story about a child she had met on a mission trip. When the child came to the U.S. and was sent to the grocery store (as a teenager) to buy cereal she almost had a nervous breakdown. The cereal aisle alone had more food that her entire village grocery store.
Donna further shared that in many of the third world countries she has travelled to the people have very few options. Only one place to draw water, only one market to purchase or barter for goods, only one food staple. Life is difficult yet simple. She further stated that we have so many choices and therefore need to practice selectivity. She stated that unlimited options and unending choices are both a blessing and, in some ways, a tremendous burden.
I need to be more selective in the choices I make, not only in clothes, music, food, but how I spend my money, my time and who I spend it with. If I am going to become the woman God wants me to be, I am going to have to work at becoming consciously selected. I need to ask myself some difficult questions. I have to also ask myself is this item I am about to purchase, this action I am about to take, this person I am about to spend time with, something that is glorifying to God? Something He would want me to do? Does it reflect my true values or is it the path of least resistance? I need to start today to make more consciously selective choices.
Affirmation: I am consciously selective about how I invest my time, money, and other resources.
Practical: Donna asks the reader to analye the following areas and rank them 1-10 with 1 meaning the path of least resistance (conforming to the world) and 10 meaning you are consciously selective in that area.
Reading material: 3
Media exposure: 3
Fashion sense: 7
Financial priorities: 8
Family time: 2
Home life: 2
Diet/food selection: 8
Personal appearance: 5
Time usage: 7
What changes do I need to make. Reading material still occassional purchase a current fashion magazine like "More" this also plays into poor financial priorities. Media exposure is a little to heavy on scientific/history topics that can have a poor view of Christians and what the Bible says. For fashion sense I do still tend to follow current styles to closely. Financial priorities need to make fewer impulse buys. Since some of those impulse buys are food stuff that is not really good for me I need to make wiser food choices at the grocery store. I also tend to waste time at work talking, facebooking, reading blogs, etc.
The other practical suggestion is to add a selectivity page to my journal and divide it into three columns. My journal page is too small for that so I set aside some back pages and labeled a page for each of the column headings: "Books to Read", "Recommended Movies", and "Positive Projects", plus set aside additional pages for any ideas that come to mind over the next 81 days.