3 Things You Can Do to Exhale Every Night

Exhaling is an important part of breathing. It's pretty necessary to expel air from your lungs before you inhale oxygen. Breathing (exhale/inhale) is one of life's rhythms that is not often considered, but is crucially necessary.

I've been thinking about the rhythms of life and how we might apply the same principles to our spiritual life. Just as exhaling and inhaling is necessary to sustain life, I wonder if we might not better sustain our own days if we took the time to exhale every night and inhale every morning.

Here are some thoughts I have on exhaling:

1. Breath out the deadly toxins.

Every day we are confronted with the reality of sin. Whether it be our own mistakes, the hurt of relationships, persecution by enemies, or just the consequences of a fallen world; by the time we close our day, our lives are full of deadly toxins. We need to exhale by breathing those out to our Father. Don't take your pain out on your wife or children or friends. Don't bottle it up inside. Take it to God. You can trust that His shoulders are big enough to carry your load for you.

2. Breathe out a sigh of relief.

God has brought you through another day. Whether it was a great one or just ok, God has carried you and sustained you through it. Thank him for that. Be relieved that the sun also rises, and rest well knowing if He carried you through today, He will carry you through tomorrow.

3. Breathe out gratitude.

Did you know that when you laugh you are exhaling? Breathing out joyfully is one of life's greatest experiences. Before you nod off to sleep, let your final thoughts be thanksgiving for the many blessings God has given you. As you close your eyes on another day, search your mind to remember the many places where God intervened on your behalf (sometimes we don't realize it at the time and it isn't until later reflection that we see what He has done for us).

In the morning, you can inhale. But I'll say more about that later.

5 Habits That Keep You From Being Content

Contentment is one of the most important virtues we can cultivate in our lives. Temptation, sin and addiction all spring out of a lack of contentment. When we are not willing to be satisfied by the resources God has provided, we will soon find ourselves chasing after the things He knows we do not need.

A few days ago, I came across a blog which listed five things that are destroying your success. Success is one of those things that everyone defines differently, but I noticed that the five items listed are also five habits that can lead to a discontented life. So I've repurposed the list, and below are five habits that will keep you from being content:

• Constantly criticizing people
• Blaming other people for your failures
• Dreaming about other successful people
• Not taking the extra step to get closer to your goal
• Letting other people make decisions for you

you can read the entire blog post here.