As I was reflecting I came to the conclusion: very little. Nurturing the soul is so much more than a prayer time, or a musical worship session. The soul is the fundamental part of us that defines who we are. It is from the soul that we gain our strength to face the world. I believe that it is the soul that mingles with our spirit as we seek a real relationship with God.
How do you starve a soul? By ignoring it. Not taking time out of your busy day to reflect or to dream. Spending quality time with a good friend feeds the soul. Snuggling up in your favorite blanket reading a good book feeds your soul. Doing absolutely nothing for absolutely no reason can feed your soul.
When we begin to pay closer attention to our souls, it's like learning to breathe. If you have ever studied how the lungs work, breathing isn't just the process of bring in oxygen, but also expelling waste and toxins like CO2. When we breathe with our souls, we inhale God & His creation - and we exhale the chaos and clutter that threatens to choke our clarity, identity, and life direction. This reminds me of a the song "Learning to Breathe" by Switchfoot:
"This is a way
That I'm learning to breathe
I'm learning to crawl
I'm finding that You and You alone can break my fall
I'm living again, awake and alive
I'm dying to breathe in these abundant skies"
What are you doing to feed you soul? Leave a comment and let me know.
ooo good post!! altho i've never really thought of it as "feeding my soul" before, i guess i do alot of that sort of thing in a number of ways. one way is by dreaming..on car rides i just like to chill and listen to my music and totally zone out into my own little "neverland". then another way is by living out my dreams. (being homeschooled helps this =D). not too many people can say that they're living out their dreams, especially at age 16...but i believe that im really doing that. i go after whatever i want, for instance, going to NASA for classes, joining the civil air patrol and learning how to fly a plane, going to college at a young age to learn and experience things that most highschoolers never could get in a classroom, coaching a cross country and track team, traveling non-stop to other countries and places and learning the history there...all this stuff and more..is really me living out my dreams. and then there's my friends...boy, what would i do without AIM?! lol i have such a wide variety of friends, from all different beliefs and backrounds, they've brought out wisdom and intelligence in me that i never thought i had before, and some of them have taught me back. i guess all this stuff is how i "feed my soul"...o! and one more thing, one more BIG thing - running. nothin better than to be running all alone through the woods...and just thinking about whatever..yup, guess that sums it up...wow...that was LONG!! sorry! =D
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YO Eric! Again thanks for the ride to marko's and then my sister's that really helped me out a lot. I guess lately to feed my soul... even though I have been UBER busy with music classes is I have begun to write a story (again) and I like the way it's going. And if I ever get extremely frustrated I will probably write out into a poem which I would probably reflect on later. So ya that is a couple of ways. OH and of course playing worship songs on my guitar and just enjoying the sound that goes with the worship. ( basically I don't always sing when I play. )
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-Austin