God breathes. Have you ever noticed that light at the beginning of the day kinda creeps in? It’s not like turning on a light switch in a dark room. It is like nature’s call to ease into the day. Hmm, my alarm clock didn’t get that memo. I feel as though my daily prayer and meditation dates with God provide a relaxing entrance into the day. It doesn’t mean I don’t wake up sometimes with a head full of worries or a strong sense of what needs to be done that day. Somehow by pausing before jumping all in, I allow the most important element of connection with my heart and my Creator ease into the driver seat of my life. Before I started my days with my dates I entered my day much like someone who is blinded by a light that switched on in a dark room. I would literally stumble out of bed and bump into stuff. I didn’t even get a chance for my eyes to adjust let alone the eyes of my heart. I knew enough in automatic pilot of what needed to get done first and except for the time of deep depression and the roughest spots of my addiction, I was able to accomplish those things. The reality was that my heart was still in the dark and I was carrying the load of the world on my shoulders with no sense of what it was all for. I can’t think of a less relaxing way to start the day, can you? I am grateful God never gave up on me or my heart even when I had given up on me. And much like the entrance of light, God found a relaxing way to let me know when I was ready to listen.
Be Of Relaxation!
My prayer for us is the courage to look at where we are tensing through our lives and ask God how we might be able to incorporate a relaxing way of being from our heart today.
If God saw fit to begin the day with a relaxing extension of light over the sky, how might you be willing to invite a little relaxation into the beginning of your day today? Share in the comments.
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Be Of Expansion!
God extends. I am continually amazed at the reaching of God for my heart. Just when I think I have done the one thing that I am sure God will not approve of or be disappointed in me about, God does the opposite and draws closer. God’s heart expands to connect with me in a deeper way and when I receive that extension my own heart expands. Invariably this occurs when my heart feels like it will shut down. I fear the darkness I have slipped into is one that I cannot step out of. God’s hand reaches out and points my eyes to the light of which I lost focus. Contrary to my thinking, the light has not gone out. If God is still around, the light is always there . . .somewhere. I need God’s expansive hand to point me towards to the light so I can see it within my own heart again. The miracle is when I think the best course of action is to shut down my heart and close up shop, God points to the flickering light within my heart that just needs a little more juice from God in order to expand.
My prayer for us is the willingness to take a chance on expansion of our hearts in the very moments we want to shut them down today.
If God is willing to draw closer to us when we want to slip away, how willing are you to stick around when the lights get dim and see if the power of God is expansive enough to turn the lights of your heart back to full power today? Share in the comments.
Be Of Throughness!
God works. As children of God we have the unique opportunity to bear witness to the evidence of God in the world. When we are open to it, God will work through us. One of the benefits of my daily prayer and meditation date time with God each morning is the opportunity to be reunited with the preciousness of being a child of God. The welcoming presence that is there to take my hand. The beauty of the acceptance of all that I am. The commitment to be there when I am there. All of these make me much more willing to turn my will and my life over and ask to be of good use in the world. I am willing to let God work through me to carry this message of love and acceptance through everything I do over the course of my day. My pride and ego always think getting things done is what life is about. God reminds me life is about being a conduit of love through which others can be present to the love within them.
My prayer for us is the willingness to recognize the power of the gift we can give ourselves and others by allowing God to work through us today.
If God can remind us of the love within us at any moment, how might you be willing to let God work through you and remind others today? Share in the comments.
Be Of Happiness!
God is presence. Happiness is such a strange concept to me. It is one of those terms that gets used and thrown around so much that it is hard to know what it even means. I attribute this to the fact that happiness is a feeling and feelings fluctuate. Sometimes we have intense ones and sometimes we barely notice them. The primary definition of “Happy” according to the Oxford dictionary is an adjective that means a feeling of pleasure or contentment. It is often presented as something to be achieved. Given that it is a feeling, it naturally fluctuates which explains why sometimes one experience or thing can make us happy and then another time it does not. It is about our being. Perhaps if we focused on being who we are when we feel happy instead of trying to reach that state, more things would bring happiness. God invites us to be present to what is. God calls on us to look within ourselves to accept and embrace the fullness of the love in us. Knowing that today I can look myself in the mirror and appreciate who I am in God is not just happiness, it is a miracle.
My prayer for us is the courage to be content with the fullness of the love within us and create the feeling of happiness wherever we go today.
If God knows our hearts and the peace of love that lies within us, how might you experience being happy in your heart today? Share in the comments.
Be Of Appeal!
God hears. Deep within the space of our heart is the call of love. It appeals to the nature of our being. We think we can run and hide by not dealing with the parts or ourselves that are most in need of love. We look upon them as deficiencies or failings. God looks upon them as appeal for love. We are invited in our walk with God to see things as God sees things. We often assume this means a burying of the elements of ourselves which we think God would not approve. How can God not approve of something God created? Yes, we may have taken that creation and morphed it but God sees only God’s creation. God never loses sight of our innocence. An appeal to love comes from an acceptance that it is time to return all of ourselves to the reality of who we are in God.
My prayer for us is the willingness to listen to the appeal of our hearts and allow God into the spaces we think God does not want to go today.
If God designed all of us, how might you be open to allowing God to appeal to your heart and see the pure nature of that which you have lost sight of in yourself today? Share in the comments.
Be Of Preference!
God chooses. God chooses all of us. We are the vehicle God chooses to share love. We are called as messengers of love by being an authentic version of ourselves. God prefers our brand of love because with all of us being involved, God can be experienced in every way through every thing. We intuitively know this preference when we experience the acceptance of love. We let go of the conditions and requirements of love showing up the way we want and allow love to simple be in and through us in more ways than we can imagine. Our preference for accepting love wholly as God accepts us completely becomes the guiding force of our lives. To the extent that I am not able to accept myself fully is where I experience a lack of peace and preference for all of the love that is within me. I find it also blocks me from the love in others that is present in places where I cannot see it in myself. Those are the times when I call upon God during our date to remind me that one who designed love has shown preference of its presence in all of me and all of you.
My prayer for us is the willingness to ask God’s help in witnessing the preference of love within all of us today.
If God prefers the recognition of love within all of us, how might God invite you to prefer the sight of love in you where you only see fear today? Share in the comments.
Be Of Holding!
God embraces. The beauty of the essence of God is the rapture of love. There is no place where God is not. All the parts of ourselves, all the things we have done or ways we have behaved that we feel shame or fear about are not held that way for God. God holds a presence of love for the darkest parts of ourselves because God knows that we are not yet in a God presence of mind. God simply invites us to grab hold of God’s hand and walk with him and listen to the sound of love that is on the outskirts of what we are trying to hide from God. With a wink, a smile, and a tender embrace God holds our hand and guides it to our hearts. In this heart space God opens our eyes to the held presence of love that is ready to reach out to our places of shame and fear.
My prayer for us is the courage to notice the holding of the space of love within our hearts where God is ready to show us how to embrace our dark spaces.
If God is not invested in the surety of our darkness and fear, how might you be open to learning how to hold a space of love and shine its light on the dark spaces with you that you fear even God dare not tread? Share in the comments.
Be Of Slowness!
God is flowing. We live in a world that seeks to categorize everyone and everything. It is an inherent part of our nature as it helps us to make sense of things. We can grow very attached to our sense of the world through this categorical order. The key is not to get stuck in the categories that we create. Our spontaneous nature also inherent calls on us to seek out novelty and that which lies outside our categories. These may seem like conflicting processes but it is all part of the ebb and flow of life. If we choose on way over the other we shut out options. We cannot just breathe in to survive, we must also breathe out. We step forward and then turn left or back up. Sometimes we even have to turn around. Our bodies share this same quality. We ingest and excrete. Those who have ever had difficulty with either one of those processes know how life seems to come to a halt. The blood goes through the heart into our cells with fresh oxygen and returns to our hearts to be replenished. Nothing in ourselves or the nature of the world speaks of being stagnant. So why do we think that it is best if things stay the same? Why do we pick one way and then become closed off to other ways of seeing things? Our brains will attach to whatever promises to ensure our survival and we can all be thankful for that. But what if our brains aren’t giving us all the options? God invites us to slow down and notice ourselves and our world. In my daily prayer and meditation dates when I slow my breathing and observe my mind, I see there is more possibility than I can come up with on my own. God simply wants a chance to connect with us an a space of openness and love.
My prayer for us is the willingness to take a few moments and slow down today.
If God has designed us to be in the flow of life, how might you slow down and notice your presence in the flow of God’s love today? Share in the comments.
Be Of Holiness!
God exalts. The beauty of being formed by love is found in our wholeness. Our recognition of our wholeness in God is our holiness. When we embrace the totality of what God created within us, we awaken to the presence of love throughout our whole selves. It is no longer about the good or the bad parts of ourselves. It is about the areas of our lives where we are aware of and live our holiness and those we choose not to live our holiness. The areas we do not are those in which we have judged as not being whole in God. Yet what elements of ourselves were not created by God? Just because we cannot see or lack awareness of God within a particular part of ourselves does not mean it does not exist. If we chose not to live from our wholeness in an area of our lives it does not undo what it was created for. As we walk in relationship with God, we are invited to share with God the places in our lives that we think God is not and ask if it is true.
My prayer for us is the courage to look again at the wholeness of who we are with the holy eyes of God.
If God designed us completely, where do you not see the holiness of that wholeness designed by God in your life today? Share in the comments.
Be Of Assimilation!
God integrates. Each moment we are presented with choices about what we are going to take in and digest into our system. Our choices are based on what we are exposed to at the moment. At least as far as we can tell. We presume most of the time that we are making choices based on what we are picking up from our physical senses. But scientists will tell us we are actually making our choices about what to assimilate based on our perception of our physical senses. Our decisions come from the meaning we have made from the input of our physical senses. It all happens so quickly we are not aware of it. Our brains actually do so much of it for us that it seems as though we do not even need to be there and in many cases we are not. It is part of the invitation of God to be present in our lives. God calls on us to be mindful of what we are assimilating into our system. God invites us to pause and examine if what we are getting ready to integrate into the whole of who we are is in alignment with the truth of who we are. Doing so will allow us to not spend so much time fighting things off when they get into our system or putting it through the all of ourselves before we let go of it. The question of assimilation is will this decision bring me closer to love today or further?
My prayer for us is the courage to put on the lens of our heart when making decisions so we may assimilate more love each day.
If God is ready to share as much as love as possible with us, what might you be assimilating into your system that is not leaving room for more love today? Share in the comments.
dailydatewithgod 