A gospel of self-monitoring

When I taught middle school, I had a conversation with a coworker who asked me how I found time to self-reflect all of the time.

I was kinda caught off guard by her question.

We had been talking about keeping a good mindset while teaching, dealing with tough parents, unhelpful admin, and tons of other pressures. (If you’re a teacher, you know!)

And she said she admired how I took time to reflect on my actions and attitudes and adjust them so often.

Which, I’m gonna be honest, I had no clue that I was doing.

I thought back to the last time that I had self-reflected, and all of a sudden my morning prayer jumped into my mind.

I guess I had self-reflected when I was giving my thanks, asking for strength for upcoming obstacles, asking for forgiveness for my previous lapses in judgement and bad attitudes…

Yeah, I guess I had self-reflected that morning without even realizing it.

And as I’ve thought back to that conversation, I’m consistently amazed at how perfectly self-reflection, self-monitoring, or “watching ourselves” is built into our religious habits.

We are asked to say formal prayers every morning and evening.

We are asked to say prayers as families and as couples to monitor ourselves in those groupings, too.

We are asked to study the scriptures daily, encouraging us to use them as a tool to learn and reflect.

We partake of the sacrament weekly for a more formal self-inventory.

And so much more!

These habits we’ve been asked to do are MEANT (at least in part) to get us off of autopilot.

To slow down and reflect.

ALL THE TIME.

“It’s time to pray again?! I just prayed!”

Yup. That’s the point. We need that self-monitoring all of the time.

We need to watch ourselves. And our thoughts. And our words. And our deeds.

And then make necessary adjustments and try again.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black