dailydatewithgod

God has one directive and it is love.  We are creations of God so our directive is the same.  Our sole purpose is to be the expression of love. It is easy to get distracted and think we are here for other reasons.  The job, the relationship, the house, the car, the political cause are the content through which we can be the expression of love.  Those things, however are not the sole purpose of our being.  Our sole purpose is being the presence of love expressed in all areas of our lives.  Sometimes the most powerful opportunities come in the smallest of experiences. The other day I found myself in a room full of people for a quarterly meeting.  We all do the same kind of work and gathered for some updates.  I could easily convince myself that my purpose is to prove that I am doing an excellent job or ask the right questions.  I did participate, ask questions, and share my experience but the interactions that powerfully touched my heart were in the smiles and hellos we exchanged.  The power of looking someone in the eye, acknowledging her presence and listening to the excitement about her new grand baby allowed me to feel the joy. Being present as a stance for the love of who each person is in that moment is my sole purpose and it is where my joy was that day.

My prayer for us is the courage to remember the soleness of purpose by being the presence of love today.

If God is the presence of love and we are created by God then what joyful might you obtain by solely focusing on your ability to be the presence of love for yourself and others today?  Share in the comments.

God loves because God is love.  At the end of the day we do not need to permit love for it to occur.  It happens as naturally as the wind blowing.  For me the difficulty comes in allowing myself to receive the love. I was talking with a close friend of mine a couple of days ago and she expressed  how important it was to her that she hear what I had to say.  A simple enough statement but one that made me want to cry.  I spent many years of my life thinking people weren’t listening and therefore did not care what I had to say.  I thought I needed to rush through whatever it is that I was saying and not take up any more of their time than necessary.  A story based on some circumstances from the past that were not happening in the present.  Allowing for love in whatever form comes in giving myself permission to be in the present moment.  Permission to let go of the stories that developed out of circumstances I am not currently experiencing.  God gives me the courage to permit myself to receive love.

My prayer for us is the willingness to let go of what is keeping up from receiving love in whatever from it presents itself.

If God is ready and waiting to bestow love on you, what might you need to permit yourself to let go of to make room for that love today?  Share in the comments.

We can choose with any breath, at any moment, to enter into a deeper sense of reality by connecting with our hearts.  Our power comes from the coherence created by the joining of our hearts and minds.  God wants us to fully experience all life has to offer not just in mind but also body, soul, and spirit.  This means bringing all of ourselves to the table.  This means exploring the world of inner selves so that we might change the perception of our outer reality.  Recently I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes by Marcel Proust: ” The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”  All that we perceive outside of ourselves comes from the perception inside of ourselves.  This is why two people present at the same event can have two completely different experiences. The fullness of life’s experiences comes in broadening the eyes through which we see.  A joining of our hearts and minds allows us to not just see but feel and connect with what we are seeing.  Our hearts encourage us to place ourselves in oneness with the experience we are seeing.  Our hearts invite us to see the similarities and connections between our inner experience and outer reality.  Our minds alone see the differences but our hearts allow us to embrace the beauty of those differences because we can simultaneously sense the deeper similarities.

My prayer for us is the courage to seek a new voyage by shifting our seeing from only a mindset to a mind and heart set today.

If we could honor that which is outside of ourselves by seeing it through the eyes of our hearts, what new voyages of discovery might you experience today?  Share in the comments.

God draws as near to us as we are willing to be in closeness to God.  We tend to think that God does not want to draw so close to us, but it is we who do not want to draw close to us.  We have judged ourselves as not worthy or fitting of the love that God embodies.  It makes no sense that the Creator would not want to be a full part and as accessible to His or Her Creation in all ways possible.  When we are willing to let go of the idea that God thinks as we do, then we are open to allowing God full access to us.  God wants to take up as much space in our hearts for which we are willing to make room.  I very vividly remember that night on the beach with the loving presence Jesus standing behind me, his arms wrapped around me and hands on my heart.  He was gently pulling at my chest and I thought my ribs would break open as tears streamed down my face.  He comforted me and said we needed to open up my heart so I could release the anger and make room for the love. I remember the feeling of surrender and willingness to allow God to reach within my very being and guide me to let go of that which did not belong in my heart.  I had no ideas how much joy I would be opened to after the pain subsided or how much lighter my heart feels as it beats in my chest today.  I am so glad that I had the courage to choose full accessibility.

My prayer for us is the willingness to choose how accessible we want God to be to our hearts today.

If God created you out of love and wants to open you up to experience a fullness of love in your heart, what areas or thoughts might you be willing to make accessible to God today?  Share in the comments.

Taking in the knowledge we are created by an everlasting being of love comes in waves.  The first step is acknowledging the presence of love in your heart.  We have all had moments when we felt and behaved in a loving manner of which we did not think we were capable.  Those moments are the times the love of our hearts was guiding our thoughts and actions.  A time when our thinking did not get in the way of our being. When we know who we are in reference to our own truth in any given circumstance, we can act from the being of our heart instead of having to think our way through it. God calls on us to use God as our frame of reference for the understanding of ourselves and choosing a way of being.

My prayer for us is the willingness to let go of measuring ourselves by the outside world’s standards and choose God as our frame of reference so that we might be from our hearts today.

If God knows and loves us thoroughly no matter what, how could God encourage you today to use this understanding as your frame of reference for being?  Share in the comments.

My prayer for us today is the courage to let go of the why just long enough to open our hearts to the sustenance of life God is providing right now in this moment for us just because.

If you am willing to trust that God provides what you need to stay alive through your breath, what else might God provide today without you even having to ask? Share in the comments.

Our hearts have the capacity of love’s fullness at all times.  This capacity has always been with us but we are not always aware and connected to it. We tend to spend most of our time in our heads.  Our minds are brilliant at figuring things out and providing the tools we need to operate in the world.  But a mind without connection to the heart is chaos.  To be in cohesion means a connected relationship between our heads and our hearts.  It is letting go of the mind needing to run the show and allowing the rhythm of our hearts guide us.  It will guide us through our breath, in the flow, and the sharing of an energy that originates beyond ourselves.  When I am in distress and survival mode I shut down my heart and go straight into my head thinking it will keep me safe. This is an old coping mechanism that may have worked at some point. God gently encourages me to a place of cohesion by taking a deep breath, placing my hand on my heart and remembering that connecting with where God dwells in me is the safest place to be.  Being in cohesion then happens as my focus and attention on the heart travels to my head and the rest of my self.

My prayer for us is the courage to pause and seek cohesion when we want to shut down the heart and protect ourselves.

If connecting with the cohesion of a heart and mind rhythm is what will expand our being and presence in this world, how could God help you to  seek cohesion this day?  Share in the comments.

The nearer we area to God the more we can experience the truth of who we are.  The funny part is how often we push God away under the guise that we are not worthy.  The real reason is our thinking that God sees us as we see.  We place limits on God and how close God wants to be to us based on our thinking. As I spend more and more time with God on our dates, I see how much I limit my understanding of God.  I presume that God would not accept the elements of me that I do not accept about me.  My genuine desire is to draw close to All That Is. It is a letting go that what I think of me is more important than what God thinks o f me.

My prayer for us is the courage to follow the desire of our hearts and draw closer to God beyond our understanding.

If closeness with God means we are able to fully experience the truth of ourselves, what might you be reluctant to allow God to get close to  about you today?  Share in the comments.

God’s magnitude of love that directs the entire universe cannot be contained in our heads.  The greatest act we can take is a surrender to the love of God and be enveloped by it.  Instead of judging ourselves for not being loving in a given situation, we can acknowledge that we neglected to let go and take on another point of view.  In that moment where we lacked a loving response we were holding on to the idea that the best response would come only from our heads.  I think of it as moments when I forgot to pause, take a breath and drop my thinking from my head into my heart.  It is in my heart that another possibility awaits.  Our hearts bear the signature of God.  It is a relief to know that to reach another perspective all it takes is a breathing pause and a redirection of attention.

My prayer for us is the gift of the pause so that we may be willing to let go of our head’s response and breathe in another response from our hearts today.

If you believe God designed your heart with all the knowledge of love, would you be willing to pause to connect with its possibilities today? Share in the comments.

God knows no limits.  The reaching of Our Creator far exceeds anything we could possibly imagine.  It is why we are invited again and again to turn over our thinking to Our Creator.  The invitation to dance in the abundance of possibility.  The encouragement to step into the unknown so we can be with The Known.  The quiet suggestion to let go just a little bit into the beauty of imagination.  God appeals to our hearts and our souls to join God in the totality of all that is. God wants abundant joy for us because it is God’s reality.  We all know the harshness of limits.  We feel the pain when we cannot get past something or through something.  We have lived the disheartening experience of seeing the limits we place on ourselves and do not know how to move forward, wondering if there is another way. I am humbled most when I realize I have placed these same limits on God by not inviting God in to change my heart and my mind.  I have decided on some level that not even God could surmount and bring an abundance of joy to what I am experiencing.  Yet, with a love that abounds beyond my imagination, God reaches out his hand, touches my cheek and whispers,  “I AM.  I AM With You.  I AM Within You.”

My prayer for us is the courage to acknowledge when we have placed our limits on the abundance of God by thinking that God thinks as we do.

If God’s abundance means that whatever we are meant to be is beyond what we know, how could God comfort you in taking a step into the unknown today?  Share in the comments.