dailydatewithgod

In the midst of our minds there is a capability to be with whatever we are experiencing.  It is called having the observer’s mind.  It is a technique that is cultivated in meditation.  Our minds are constantly going and our thoughts come one right after another.  We then attach to particular ones like picking them up off of a conveyor belt on an assembly line and inspecting it.  Our attachment to a particular thought and giving it further meaning creates our experience.  Meanwhile we stop being present in the moment and don’t notice the other thoughts that go through our mind.  We are too busy collecting other thoughts that support the one we picked up.  On my dates with God I have been shown the power of stopping and observing which thoughts I pick off the conveyor belt and decide if focusing on them brings me closer to love or if I want to pick another one.

My prayer for us is the recognition that we can choose at any point to observe our thoughts and our lives in any moment of this day.

If you were given the option to observe your growing toward or away from love which thoughts would you pick off the conveyor belt to focus on today?  Share in the comments.

God is the choice. God is the answer.  We face all kinds of problems or challenges each day. Each one comes at us at varying degrees and speeds. If the choice has a lot of varying outcomes we can become paralyzed by focusing on the outcome instead of the process of making the decision.  We might play through in our minds all the possible what ifs and if you are anything like me sometimes drive yourself crazy doing so.  It is then that I ask for God’s hand to be placed on my heart and slow the speed of my racing mind.  I have learned that the more I stay in my head without connecting my heart, the harder it will be to come to an answer.  This practice over and over again creates a way of being that reminds me to always connect to my heart.  It is a simple acknowledgment of where God resides at my deepest core and my desire to have my answers come from that place.

My prayer for us today when we get frazzled by needing to make a decision is a willingness to stop and embrace the process of remembering to connect with our hearts.

If you wanted to remember to return to your heart for your truth, what kind of reminder would you ask of God today?  Share in the comments.

God’s gentleness is something to be cherished.  It is the still small quiet voice that nudges us amidst the chaos of the world to pause and breathe. God wants us to be present to the respiration of our physical bodies and the inspiration of our spiritual reality.  God wants for us to know the love that we are with every breath we take.  This is why breathing is a constant happening in our lives, more so than any other function in our bodies.  We may not pay attention to how often we breathe in and out but it is constant all day and night long.  It mirrors the constancy of God.  We need to take those breaths to keep living just as we need God to keep living. We can choose to be aware of our breath as many times as we wish in the same way we can choose to be aware of our connection to Spirit.

My prayer for us is the recognition that within our physical system is the mirror of the constancy of God who wants to reside in our hearts and that we can be present to it as many times as we wish to be inspired.

If you knew in your heart that with each breath you were connecting with spirit and it was God’s way of constantly requesting to be in your heart how many times today would you want to be present to your re-spiriting?  Share in the comments.

God creates space for us to lean in.  It is a welcomed gesture from someone like me who has often veered towards pushing away.  When I find myself under stress and uncomfortable, I often feel like the world is closing in on me and I want to push back.  I want to shut people out and go into my little cocoon.  Until my dates with God it never occurred to me that I might be pushing away God’s arms of comfort.  What looked like an effort to make sure I was protected ended up being the very thing that kept the ultimate protection from reaching me.  God gestures for me to come closer when I want to put up my walls to protect me from what I perceive as a hostile world.  God quietly tugs at my heart and says I AM here.  I AM with you.  I AM within you.  God is calling on me to perceive my reality differently.  God’s protection which is about residing and taking comfort in the love of all that is, is what nurtures and restores my heart.  God’s protection is what allows me to gently move from the thinking of the world and all around me as hostile and the restoration of my own heart to the reality of love.

My prayer for us is the courage to draw into God’s protection which will create the restoration of love in our hearts that we are seeking when we want to push back today.

If God was offering the protection of your heart by reminding you of the love that resides in it, how would you like to be protected by God today?  Share in the comments.

 God is love therefore God only sees love.  I am sure God gets a kick out of how much time we spend looking for love in all the wrong places.  Recognizing that it resides within our hearts where God began our creation is both freeing and baffling.  It is freeing to our spirit and baffling to our mind.  It calls upon us to see things differently.  We can easily focus on the difference that we see physically around us.  We have no problem recognizing the separation between ourselves and others.  Courage is what gives us the willingness to see the difference in our thinking from God’s.  When we identify the limits that our mind places on our perspective and choose to be opened to the possibilities that are present in love, we begin to see the difference.

My prayer for us is the courage to ask God to see the difference between our thinking from God’s thinking today.

  If you realized that you wanted the difference in God’s thinking to be ever-present in your life today, how would you ask God for help?  Share in the comments.

God is boundless.  The far reaches of the universe cannot begin to encompass all that God is.  When we remember that from which we were created we recognize that the love that resides within us is also boundless.  We need not concern ourselves with boundaries because love is the boundary.  It has us from all sides.  There is no where we can go real or imagined that love is not already present. Our mind wants us to think that we need to protect ourselves from the unknown because we do not know what dangers are lurking there.  Our heart knows that the only thing lurking is the possibility of love’s expression.  When we are willing to stretch our thinking past its own understanding, we can embrace the love that we are.  When we remember to turn to God and ask to see our lives and the lives of others through the lens of love that is the truth of who we all are, our hearts stretch to their capacity and love comes alive.  I know that when I am focused in my head on what is wrong in any situation or what someone else is doing that is wrong or bad, I close off my heart.  When I am in fear that I will not be okay or I must protect myself, my heart grows small, my breathing becomes tight, and I am restricted in mind and body.  The stretching comes when I humbly reach for God’s hand and open my mind to ask God to help me to see the situation or person as God sees them.

My prayer for us is the trust to know that God can help us to stretch our hearts and experience the love that is present in this moment despite all evidence to contrary.

If you knew in your heart that whatever was in front of you would allow you to grow more in love, how would you ask God to stretch your mind and heart today?  Share in the comments.

I think flowers are beautiful.  They are a delight to the eyes, often soft to the touch, and tantalizing to the nose.  Their variety is endless and we as humans place so much meaning on them.  Some are used for medicinal purposes and even edible.  They open up as they grow to maturity and their vulnerability of beauty is made evident gradually over time.  As most things in nature, I have learned to ask what is God trying to show me through its presence in the world.  The ease through which they seem to trust the ground or tree from which they grow is inspiring.  The fact that they so freely offer their gifts of pollen by remaining open and when the bees come and partake of their nectar they do not shut down but seem to convey this inner confidence of beauty and purpose.  Most of all, I have never come across a flower growing in nature or anywhere and wondered why it looked so out of place. The color, shape, variety of patterns and way they grow is boundless. They seem to bloom and grow exactly where they are supposed to adding beauty to wherever they are.

My prayer for us is to embrace our own flowering giving ourselves permission to own the color, shape, variety, and gift that we have when we open up to the world.

If you knew that God would see to it that your variety of flowering on the world was cherished and valued, what might you share with the world today?  Share in the comments.

My prayer for us is an opening to see that God does not create anything that God is not continually a part of, therefore we all have within us the dignity of love that can transform anything.

If you knew inherently that God’s dignity was in your own heart, what might you do today to spend time with your heart and claim that dignity?  Share in the comments.

There is a call of our spirit that echoes in the chambers of our heart.  It is a subtle vibration that we barely notice unless we are tuned in closely.  It is the element of our creation that keeps us uniquely linked to Our Creator.  It is the wave of energy that within us longs to be connected to the Great All That Is.  We attempt to fill the longing with things outside of ourselves, ideas, practices, feelings, and even prayers.  But sometimes the only thing that will satisfy this longing is to just BE in the presences of Our Creator.  Be without any fixed idea of how God will show up.  Be without any list of things that we need to do in order to be worthy.  Be without any set words or expression to show our desire to connect.  A breath in and out in the stillness of our being.  An opening of our eyes to the beauty of being alive.  We get glimpses and flashes of it when we are fully present in the moment.  We feel it when we witness the expression of creation in form like a blooming flower, the sound of genuine laughter, an exquisite performance on the sports field or in the music hall, or a tear of release running down our cheek.  Whatever it is, it does not seem to stay.  Our hearts and spirits are moved and we long for more.  It is these delicate realities of gifts of being alive that I feel privileged to be present to when I choose to just BE.  The only thing I can attribute this awareness to is my willingness to show up on our daily date, no matter what, each morning.  It is the very longing to deeply connect that keeps me coming back and being willing to BE.

My prayer for us is the courage to notice the times and experiences that play the strings of our heart at its frequency of joy and hush our sense of longing for a moment today.

If you knew that God would show you the way to experience the present moment that quiets your internal longing, how would you ask God to show you this gift today? Share in the comments.

God is the Great Dancer!  God is the one who designed the footwork pattern of all the dances.  God is the lead in the dance and when we take His hand and step to the music our life flows.  We manage to effortlessly handle twists and turns.  We are able to push in and out of life and still stay connected.  When we try to lead solely on our own we invariably step on each other’s toes.  God wants to dance with us and invites us with each breath to take part in the beauty of the flow.  We often fill our dance card with other suitors (fear, worry, power, living in the past) and have no room for God.  All it takes is one dance and we will notice the distinction of partners.  None of this happens, however, if we don’t attend the dance.  Sometimes we just want to listen to the music.  Sometimes we are afraid we will mess up too much even if we let God lead.  Sometimes it may be scary to let God in that close. Sometimes we are so used to leading that when we try to let go we do so in a bumpy fashion.  But God is not afraid to slow down and let us slowly work up to the more complex steps. God is happy that we decided to attend the dance engage in life today.

My prayer for us is a willingness to attend to our lives and consider the dance we are invited to partake in with God this day.

If God is willing to be your dance partner today, which dance would you want to attend? The Cha Cha, the Fox Trot, Salsa, Rumba ? (So many choices!).  Share in the comments.