Confident, Ordinary & Average
It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I pay attention.
My morning routine is to make coffee, take my meds, cozy up on the couch with a massager on my lower back, and listen to a few short readings on my phone while my meds begin working and I’m waking up. Sometimes I have to listen twice because my brain feels a bit dull, but today all three readings caught my attention.
The first one was about Psalm 51, and how David prayed with confidence that God would hear him. He wrote, “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” The encouragement was to consider praying the same way, with confidence that God hears.
The second one was from Luke 9 and how Jesus had extraordinary and ordinary days. He was faced with similar emotional ups and downs that we experience, but they didn’t change his purpose or sense of confidence in God the Father’s ability to be all that he needed. The encouragement was to trust God regardless of our changing emotional weather.
And the third was from a psychology website that was teaching how to regulate the nervous system by being “wonderfully average”. They suggested that practicing leaving things ‘good enough’, saying no, and letting someone be mildly disappointed with us can prove to our nervous system that being imperfect is safe. It’s okay. :) People-pleasing and perfectionism can increase chronic pain.
This caught my attention, and I decided to put all three lessons into practice.
Today was going to be an ordinary errand day, so I confidently asked God to help me be wonderfully average, and here’s what happened.
I showed up for my Pilates class at exactly 11:00 am instead of ten minutes early. (I realized that I take pride in being early…it was hard to practice this today, but I felt myself relax a bit, not be the ‘star’ student.)
When the instructor suggested we could take a water break, but no one else did, I took one. (I showed compassion to myself.)
I needed an ECG test done and had the requisition in my purse, so I dropped in to see what the wait time was; even though I was sweaty from Pilates, I got it done anyway. (Maybe the lab tech didn’t like my post-workout glow? It probably didn’t matter.)
I got passport photos done after that with no makeup on and post-Pilates hair. (a VERY average moment! ha ha)
I was genuinely kind with people I interacted with, but didn’t overdo it. (However, I could feel myself wanting to.)
I was tempted to overexplain an issue I had at the post office, but once I realized the mistake I made on a form, I laughed and said, I’ll try it again tomorrow. (No big deal. The form might be late by one day. Breathe, Heather!)
It turns out that I DO have people-pleasing and perfectionistic tendencies!
This wasn’t a surprise to me; I am aware of this, but I was surprised at how many times I was tempted to do just a little bit more, better, extra…and the choices happened all day! The choice to be perfect-ish or wonderfully average.
The thing is, being wonderfully average was actually pretty awesome. I felt more free, less overthinking, and more authentically spontaneous. I stopped in for a booster juice on my way home from errands, and they asked if I wanted a free boost of something in it. I asked what she recommended, and she said, “Warrior Booster,” so I said sure and cracked a joke about how it’s kinda like paint chip names… It's all in the name.
When she handed me my drink, she wrote this on the top!
And I thought I wasn’t even trying to be! :)
May we be confident in God’s promise that he hears our prayers.
May we accept the ordinary days and trust that God is still the same regardless of how we feel.
And may we be free to be wonderfully average, giving our nervous systems the gift of safety and rest.
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