Affirmation

Affirmation

This morning I awoke with a word on my mind. That word was “affirmation”. One evening this week one of my friends was telling that she often writes words or a line of affirmation to herself in the morning to help her through that day or week. She gave some examples. One example really struck me as an affirmation that I’ve been working on for myself, especially for this last year, but probably more like the last 2 – 3 years. That affirmation is “I flow with change”. As I’ve told you in past postings, there have been a lot of changes in my personal life these last few years, and a lot of changes in my working life. I think my friend’s example of giving affirmations to ones self is a good practice, and I’m going to try doing it.

But, even better, is getting an “affirmation” from others and that is what we all search for in our relationships, it’s what gets us through hard times. However, if you don’t get affirmations from others, then you do, indeed need to give them to yourself once in a while. I received a nice birthday present yesterday. My supervisor at work gave me my annual review. If you are employed outside of your home, you know what I’m talking about. An annual review that you go into wondering what will be said about your work that you do throughout the year on a daily basis. You have “goals”, you personally access how you did with your “goals” and then your supervisor accesses them and you come together to “talk” about the review period, and you anxiously wait to hear what she/he has to say. That is the process at our organization. Well, I am happy to say that she affirmed to me that my hard work this past year was of worth. She told me she realized with the changes that it hasn’t been easy, and that “you worked through and accepted the changes with grace”. She told me that I was a great asset to the organization, (something all of us want to hear), and I believe she was sincere. I told her that I felt that the challenges and changes have strengthened me and that I appreciated her affirmation. It was indeed, a good birthday present.

So, last night I was thinking about that “affirmation” and feeling good about my job again. We don’t always get affirmation about the work we do at our jobs, and it was just what I needed at this time.

Then this morning, I woke up thinking about the word itself, "affirmation", and then I realized that in my personal life I have been getting affirmations too. We all get affirmations, we just need to take time and recognize them. I am affirmed each day how much I am loved by my husband, when I talk to my siblings, with my family members and my children, I get affirmation of their love. I get affirmation each day from my friends. When I attend worship and pray I get affirmation that God loves me. Affirmation when I look at nature, that God loves all of us. Giving and receiving love is what this life is about. What more affirmation can I want than the affirmation of LOVE.