Silence and Solitude Part 2

Please refer back to Part 1 before you go on to read this section.

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Part 2

Organizing a Silence and Solitude Day

Four Ways to Change Your Life

1. Heart change - conviction from God and repentance from you
2. Study - research and fact-finding for how to change your life, which includes reading the Bible and other books, speaking with people you know who have wisdom, etc.
3. Plan - ongoing, detailed, and prayerful life organization
4. Action - working your plan and making changes as life requires:

Moleskine - always keep a journal like this nearby to jot notes, thoughts and convictions in
Journaling - use your laptop to gather the scattered ideas in your Moleskine and prayerfully and carefully add to and consider them
Calendar - take action items from you silence and solitude day and put them on the calendar, as without being officially planned, nothing ever gets done to completion


Most people are good at one or two of these steps. Some have a heart to change and do their homework but do not make a plan and take action to change thier life. Others have plans and action but are religiously just doing duties because they have not experienced heart change from God. Others move from heart change to action without research and a plan; they mean well but the make their life (e.g., health, finances, relationships) worse.


Take some time and be honest with yourself. List each of these steps in order from the one you are strongest at the one you are the weakest at.


Where is your life getting stuck and what can you do to grow where you are weak? Who do you need to talk to and learn from? What do you need to repent of?


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So here is my list in order from strongest to weakest: 2, 1, 3, 4. And even then I am not very good at 2 or 1. I actually like journaling. I find that it is easier to get all of my thoughts on paper where I can see them in front of me instead of trying to keep them all sorted out in my mind. The problem that I have is that I often just don't find the time to journal. I think I am going to set a specific time each day to even just write that I don't have time to write much currently, but at least keep a journal going. That way I can see where God has worked in my life and what prayers he has answered.