"Sit up straight!" How many times have we each heard that throughout our life, likely first from our mothers. To which our body response was to throw our shoulders back, lifting our head, never suspecting that this very "correction" was actually throwing the "sit up straight" posture into our Lower thoracic and lumbar spine. (Thus, began the pain cycle later in life!) Yep, but that's the SIT UP STRAIGHT, that we all know too well. Thankfully from my first day of PT school, Dr. Bob (CFMT) taught us all how to sit correctly over our sit bones, neutral lumbar spine, ribcage aligned over pelvis, and how to correct the shoulder girdle position so as NOT to throw it into our lower back and subsequently continue the degenerative process we find ourselves in otherwise. By the end of his description and our own postural correction experience, it was clear to me that we cannot correct our physical posture unless someone teaches us HOW. How to find our sit bones, what neutral lumbar spine feels like instead of the lordotic curve that marketing has taught us all to often to buy the "roll" to make finding your posture easy. Yeah right! Really?! Are any of us the "one size fits all"? No, each posture is different and deserves its own experience to be taught how to break the vicious cycle of what Bad postures can do to our bodies and mind and yes our hearts. Sadly some of the postures we see my reflect the heart and hurt more than we think. Here's just a few examples that we have all seen:
Several weeks ago our pastor, Jay, gave an outstanding sermon on posture. He had my attention immediately. He spoke about the postures that affect us and the postures that are present throughout the Bible. WOW! What a great topic for me! I am nerd enough to love that! So throughout these last few weeks, I've had this on my mind. POSTURES. POSTURE. How we hold ourselves. How we choose to correct it....or not. How we hold ourselves before the Lord.
Throughout the Bible there are many postures. Face-down. Child's pose prayer position, palms to ground. Kneeling with elbows tucked in, forehead on our hands. Tall kneeling leaning on a bench. Seated, head bowed, elbows supported, hands clasped on knees. Standing quietly. Standing with arms raised. Supine. And there's more to the list, I'm sure. There are so many appropriate postures that respond to God. Praying to request, to ask, to beg, coming in desperation, coming in thankfulness, bringing our praise.
My proposal this Mother's Day is to spread the Postures of Praise. Spread how we want our kids to see us. How we want them to grow into the confident people in who the Lord made them. (I know WHOSE I AM.) Postures of reverence toward the Lord and how to respect His Name and what is His. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the earth and all who deal in it. Psalm 24:1. Praise postures could be taken at face value. Standing singing to music or sitting. Hands folded in front, one hand up, or both. No matter. It should reflect the true heart of the worshipper. Many times our outward postures may reflect our heart. Depressed, defeated, unsure, arrogant, ego, pride, distracted, fractured, focused, or passionate. Intensity can be communicated in lots of different ways, but especially through how we hold ourselves. Through our postures.
My proposal is to really look inward so we can demonstrate Him outward. As moms, we are busy, crazy, list-makers, forgetful, cooks, employees, and children of God. Let's take a look within ourselves so we can outwardly "carry" ourselves differently and communicate that NO MATTER WHAT and WHAT PHASE of life we can show these beautiful children we are mother's to, how to carry themselves and HOW to have a LIFE POSTURE of PRAISE. Part of my joy is getting to assist people in seeing how their present posture affects their spine and whole body. Let's make sure that as mother's we teach a good physical posture. (If you don't know where to start, take them to a physical therapist.) That we encourage communication and time for these children to express themselves. SO THAT, these beautiful kids can carry themselves and stand TALL on our shoulders. TO know that from our posture, we are confident of our King! To look to us when they are down and take on the postures described in the Bible when they present their request to God. To know that KNOW MATTER WHAT, they can stand from these postures TALL in alignment. They can lift their head up and their eyes to the heaven knowing that they serve a BIG, GREAT GOD.
I want my kids to know how to correct their physical posture and who they can take their matters of the heart to. To me of course. BUT TO the ONLY ONE who is capable of loving us with an everlasting love, who made us, and knew us before we were born. To the wonderful, beautiful counselor, and Savior! Let's teach our children about Postures of Praise!! Start with the physical and it will be a great avenue to talk to them about God.
Thank you for making me a MOM. They are my precious gifts entrusted to me and bring me JOY every single day! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to each of the amazing ladies in my life!
