My Tribe's Vibe: My Go-To

This one is with me for as long as God gives me a mind to think with and I'm alive on this earth.

And it's as easy as A-B-C.

-This is my go to when I can't fall asleep at night, or when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep.
-When I'm so stressed I feel like my heart might beat out of my chest, I do this.

And did I mention, it's as easy as A-B-C?

I recite/pray the attributes of God using the letters of the alphabet.

I first heard about this when I used this book while we were homeschooling. 

It is an amazing book, and one I would highly recommend using with your 7, 8, 9, or 10 year old child even if you hate homeschooling! It teaches such high, true things about our great God. You could do it around the table after the evening meal, or with your children before bed. So, so good.

The table of contents looks like this:

These are the first attributes of God I ever associated with the ABCs. My children used to be able to recite the list from memory. I'll have to ask the only one left at home if she still can ;). 

Anyway, sometime after this, a good friend mentioned that when she was having one of those days when everything seemed to be coming apart at the seams, she would stop and go through the attributes of God using the letters of the alphabet. She'd never seen this book, she just thought them up as she went through the alphabet. 

That resonated with me. How cool to have an easy way to immediately think about our great, big, good, God! When my thoughts sometimes start to spin out of control with worry or fear, God gently nudges my heart with "Who do you serve, Shelley?"

And I can think/pray: "You God. And 


God, you are: Amazing,
                      Beautiful,
                      Caring,
                      Dear to me,
                      Excellent,
                      Faithful,
                     Good,
                     Holy,
                     Incredible,
                     Joyful,
                     Kind,
                     Loving,
                     More than I could hope for,
                     Near,
                     Omnipotent,
                     Purposeful,
                     Quite amazing!
                     Real,
                     Strong,
                     Trustworthy,
                     Understanding,
                     Victorious,
                     Wonderful,
                     eXciting!
                     Young (?) (Ageless) (Y is hard!)
                     Zealous!

I made that list up out of my head just now without looking at the attributes listed in the picture above. Could you tell?;) But, the "real" one above is an amazing list, so use it if you want! Every time I think through the attributes, they are different. And, full disclosure here, I rarely make it through the entire alphabet. But that's not really the point, is it? 

The point is to remind myself of who God is. To remind myself that he is able. To remind myself that He loves me. To remind myself of who I am before Him. To remind myself that our God is incredible. If He is my savior, this creator God is for me (Romans 8:31) and will help (Psalm 121:2).

Sometimes I'm blown away by the fact that I can think about anything I want to. God has given me that great gift. Then I'm blown away even more that I can think and pray, and the creator of the entire universe hears me.

Yes, this one is with me for as long as I'm alive on this earth, and God gives me a mind to think with.