Why You Need a Rhythms Reset and How to Make it Happen
The She Is Emboldened community recently did a week-long Rhythms Reset Week to decrease distractions, be present, and set our minds on God. I mean, who doesn’t need to do those things, right?
I wanted to share what we learned through those daily rhythms because the Lord revealed some profound things to me through this process. About myself and Him.
Not only that, I LOVED hearing your feedback and what you learned as well.
The FREE Rhythms Reset E-Book is still available if you want to tackle a week-long spiritual reset on your own, with your spouse, or with friends. I plan to do this quarterly and will likely update the current book or make new ones each time. I think you’ll be surprised about what just a few simple daily rhythms will do for your heart and mind.
What Does A Rhythms Reset Look Like?
What We Cut Out For Rhythms Reset Week
We cut out media, set some boundaries on our phones, and did our best to be present in real-time in our relationships. We live in a world of distraction, which directly impairs our ability to hear from God. Making room for prayer and reflection was an essential part of our Rhythms Reset.
Rhythms Reset Week also had morning and evening practices to help us pause and make space to set our hearts and minds on God. Here is what they were:
Morning Rhythms
The morning rhythms consisted of stepping outside for 5 minutes and meditating on a small piece of scripture. Meditation on scripture often looks like prayer, thanking God for who He is (as is revealed in scripture,) asking for help to do what scripture asks us to do, and simply starting your morning by talking to God.
Stepping outside is key, especially for my Mama and Type-A friends. You’re less likely to get distracted by your to-do list for the day if you head straight outside with your Bible or scripture in hand. For me, there was a cup of coffee there, too. Some mornings my 1-year-old joined me because it just so happened that week was one where she decided 5:30 am would be a great time to start her day. If you can get this time alone, it’s ideal. But when you’re a Mama, you may have a few little ones around during this morning practice. There’s something to say for alone time, but also something special about praying with your kiddos in your lap.
Evening Rhythms
1. Evening Prayer Walk
This was the trickiest rhythm for me to implement consistently. So I played with how I tried to implement this as the week went on. Most days, walking up and down our hallway in the morning as the coffee brewed or in the evening right after I put the kids down was the easiest way to make this happen. A few evenings, I walked down our street, which was a nice way to wrap up my day. The goal was to have another cornerstone of your day pushing you back to God. Whether it’s down the hall for 2 minutes or around the block for 5 minutes, this is a practice I want to implement into my weekly rhythms more often.
2. Evening Reflection Questions
There were three evening reflection questions to answer as a way to recap our day with the Lord and prepare our hearts for the next day. Here is what they were:
Gratitude
The first part of the evening reflection was to list three things we were thankful for. We tried to avoid generalities and identify specific areas of gratitude for each day.
I am prone to discouragement. Possibly because I’m wired as a critical thinker and can focus on the things that aren’t going well while completely neglecting to acknowledge the wins of each day. Can you relate? Gratitude was a powerful practice for me. There is always good in the midst of the hard.
My friend described a practice she has been doing lately that pushes her towards hope and the Lord when things are hard. She said she’s started, “to look for God” amid difficult situations. It’s a way to acknowledge that God is always with you and He is always working, no matter how desperate or difficult things may be. What a beautiful thing for us to practice, too!
It also reminds me of the Mr. Rogers quote, “Look for the helpers.” Point out the people who are fighting against the grain in the direst of situations to bring hope and healing to others. There is always something or someone to be thankful for. Look for God when things get hard.
Confession and Relationships
Our next question was, “Is there a sin to confess or a relationship to mend”?
This question made me realize that I sin more often than I realize. Let me define sin for us first because this can be a term that often makes people bristle or brings confusion.
Sin is anything apart from God’s vision for us as found in the Bible. We see in scripture that the effects of sin are separation from God, death, and destruction. Sin steals, kills, and destroys figuratively and sometimes literally in our lives.
Confessing sin brings freedom. When we fail to recognize our sin and confess it, we forfeit the opportunity to walk freely with God. We miss out on the good work He prepares for us to do as co-laborers with Him. It’s impossible to stay in a close relationship with God while we actively hold on to sin in our life.
When I reflected on these questions each evening, usually the person I most often had sinned against was my husband. I asked for forgiveness and apologized more to him at the end of the day than I had in a while during Rhythms Reset Week. I wonder who that would be for you? We’ve made it a practice in our home to apologize and ask for forgiveness from our kids, but we aren’t as consistent in our relationship. I got to work on this in my marriage and was thankful that the Lord revealed that to me.
Work Your Trust Muscle
What worries do you need to hand over to the Lord? This was our final evening reflection question.
This practice was valuable for me as well. My tendency to take control and make things happen without inviting God into it increases anxiety and stress in my life. Naming worries made me realize I tend to worry more than I thought. It allowed me to hand those worries over to God and trust Him with the outcomes. It was AMAZING to see how many of my worries became areas of gratitude throughout the week. I was reminded of how faithful God is.
If you feel like God has abandoned you, try journaling these reflection questions. I bet you’ll be able to see how God is moving when otherwise you would have missed it. He is always working, healing, and redeeming. You just have to look for it. When we come up against hard things, God is behind the scenes working things out in ways we can’t even comprehend.
I want to make this a regular part of my daily routine. The easiest way to ensure I would continue this habit was to stick a notebook and pen on my nightstand. That way I could answer these questions each night before bed. It’s a way to end your day with the Lord in thankfulness and freedom from sin and worry.
My Takeaways
1. What I Learned About God
He is always near. God is working during my bad days, bad moments, and failures. God is faithful. He won’t leave me, give up on me, or break His promises. His vision for my life trumps anything that I could envision. His Word is powerful, true, and an anchor that I need in my life.
2. What I learned About Myself
If I’m not hearing from God it’s because I’m too busy, distracted, selfish, or self-focused to hear His voice.
God often speaks to us in a whisper, by impressing something on our hearts. He won’t often shout at us to comply with His will for our life. It’s something that He invites us into. It’s easy to miss Him if we aren’t intentionally seeking Him each day and throughout the day.
I need to meet with God first thing in the morning.
Whether it’s stepping outside for a minute or kneeling in my closet to pray. While I may be half-awake, my brain not fully functioning, and looking like a bit of a mess, I saw the difference in this consistent meeting with God first thing each morning.
I talk to God a lot more without media in my life.
With more pockets of quiet in my day, those moments were filled with normal conversation with God. While doing the dishes, prepping a meal, and cleaning the house, I prayed and connected with Him throughout the day. The amount of time I spent in prayer grew exponentially without listening to podcasts and being online.
There is always something to be thankful for.
Even on the days when I felt like a failure as a mom, there were pockets of joy to be found. My friend told me how she listened to a psychology podcast (non-Christian) that talked about how hope is essential for our survival. Gratitude is a key ingredient for hope and it’s essential to practice gratitude each day.
I sin more than I realized.
While this isn’t surprising, it was good for me to see objective data to support this realization! It made me realize the importance of identifying the sin in my life so I can turn from it and be right with God and others. Confessing sin early and often is vital for spiritual and relational health.
I’ve got places to grow as a wife.
I realized I tend to take out my emotions on my husband on the hard days. While I think that’s common, it doesn’t mean it’s right. I found places where I needed to grow in grace, patience, kindness, and sacrifice. I’m thankful God showed me the areas I could grow as a wife without shaming me into changing. He lovingly showed me ways I could grow.
I could talk for a while about how God doesn’t operate in the guilt and shame department. If you’ve ever tried to motivate someone through shame or guilt (or someone has tried to motivate you that way), you know that it just doesn’t work. God motivates through love. He wants us to grow in love and Christ-likeness, but He gives us the power by the Holy Spirit and His love to do it.
I worry more than I realized.
Anxiety is not generally a struggle of mine, (by the grace of God), but I noticed that there were things I worried about that I hadn’t handed over to God. I hadn’t asked Him for support, help, or direction in these matters. I hadn’t entrusted Him with these situations and was flying solo in many endeavors.
God did not create us to worry. Period. That’s a post-fall concept and a result of sin in the world. Worry is linked to a lack of trust in God. Faith and trust in the Lord are muscles that need strengthening over time. The longer we walk with God and trust Him with our worries, the more our faith in His goodness grows. Even if things don’t go according to plan, we see His hand in things. I can look back on my life and see how He has directed and protected me.
What You Learned During Rhythms Reset Week
Here is the feedback I got from the SIE community after they participated in Rhythms Reset Week. Thank you to each of you who shared your reflections and thoughts!
1. Getting Outside Is A Game-Changer
This was one of everyone’s favorite parts of Rhythms Reset. Multiple people acknowledged the peace that comes from being outside and how being in nature points us to God. Stepping away for a moment of quiet outdoors is a game-changer for your spiritual life.
2. Scripture Is Powerful
Several people commented on how focusing on a small piece of scripture was so effective in walking with God and being faithful to Him each day. No matter how eloquent or inspirational someone is, you can’t replace the power of God’s Word for making a change in your life. And it needs to be firsthand. If you’re only listening to sermons or podcasts about the Bible but never reading it for yourself, you’re getting a secondhand and watered-down version for yourself. The Holy Spirit doesn’t have a chance to reveal things to you.
It’d be like your only experience with a movie was someone’s retelling of it. The knowledge and experience are not the same as if you’d been in the theater watching the movie yourself. Reading the Bible is the same way, you’ve got to do the work yourself.
3. Going Offline Is Essential
Many people identified how happy they were to be off-line. To the point that several people considered going off-line for a long-term season. Comparison and distraction are two fruits of social media that will kill your joy like nothing else. If nothing else, regular weekly, monthly, and quarterly breaks are needed. Whether it’s a few hours or a few days, I highly recommend a regular social media fast.
4. Prayer Walking Is Uncomfortable and a New Idea
Like me, this was the most challenging practice for people to implement. My theory is because most of us aren’t used to doing it! We don’t know the best way to fit it into our days and weeks as a natural rhythm for communicating with God. Everyone liked the idea, but we all felt like this was something we wanted to continue to explore and tweak in the future.
5. Practicing Gratitude Is Important, But None of Us Are Doing It Consistently
Many people acknowledge the value of practicing gratitude. They were aware of the benefits before doing the Rhythms Reset, but had never had a system for practicing it.
Just Do It
It’s essential to have specific times to reset throughout the year, whether spiritually, physically, or otherwise. We do best with seasons that have stop and starting points. We can leverage these times to re-evaluate our lives and habits and adjust as needed. That’s what Rhythms Reset Week did for me and I plan to implement this type of spiritual and mental reset quarterly each year.
Grab Your Free Gift!
Grab your free copy of the Rhythms Reset E-Book here and invite some friends to join you as you read through it! I pray it blesses you and your relationship with God.
Let’s Connect!
