dailydatewithgod

One foot in front of the other. One breath and then the next.  Everything we do is a series of steps.  A progression in a particular direction.  This is always obvious  when it comes to how we physically progress from one thing to the next.  The same applies to our spiritual and emotional reality.  Everything is connected in a flow and when we step into the flow we move forward.  When we fight the flow we are resisting reality. We don’t have to fight it but we can interrupt it and redirect its course. We have a thought and then comes the feeling based on the thought.  We then progress by attaching to the energy generated by the emotion and we act.  When we repeat the same thoughts and feelings we create a habit.  Our habits then form a character or way of being.  Our destiny is designed from our way of being.  If we go back to the beginning of the progression and pay attention to the thoughts and feelings to which we attach ourselves, we can interrupt the cycle and make progress down a different path.  We can even ask God for help.

My prayer for us is to attune to how we progress in creating our destiny by paying attention to our thoughts and feelings today.

If you noticed your thoughts and feelings today, how do they tell of the progress of your destiny?  Share in the comments.

There are many sayings in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures that after 12 years of Catholic school, a religious studies degree, and a lifetimes of attending Catholic masses stand out to me.  I know them by heart and can quote them.  Then there are ones that pop up in my mind as needed.  Like an angel on my shoulder it is a whisper.  As this new year embarks and I am looking at what is ahead and what plans I might set in place, the beginning lines of the one from the Hebrew book of Jeremiah (29:11-13) came to me.

     “For I know the plans I have for you“, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

It reminds me of the alarm I have on my phone that goes off at 2:30 pm each day and says, “Hey Colleen, I got you on this one. Love, God”  In my times with God on our dates I am reminded of the simplicity of the Great Creator who not only gives me breath in which to sustain me throughout the day.  These whispers remind me that God does so much more.  This morning my reminder is to relax into that breath and trust that God has plans for me that include lack of harm (i.e.- I am safe), prosperity, hope, and a future.  I just have to keep doing my part which is come to God, share with God, and seek God in all things with my heart.

My prayer for us is to breathe in the message of plans for lack of harm, hope, and prosperity are taken care of for us today.

If you knew in your heart that a future of hope, prosperity, lack of harm were in the planning of and for you from the beginning, how might you act today? Share in the comments.

When I sit quietly in the space of my heart today, it is amazing how soft the space is. I spent much of my life trying to protect my heart in various and rather extreme ways.  Since my experience taught me that it was going to hurt and I didn’t like it I concluded as a child that the best bet was to construct some armor around it.  That armor eventually manifested into a physical barrier of over 300#s.  Beyond that was the emotional barrier of not fully letting in others, unless they proved themselves worthy.  I used humor and sarcasm to keep from showing my real feelings, lest they be considered unacceptable yet again.  It is actually quite brilliant the lengths that I went to in guarding my heart.  Unfortunately, that means that I blocked out a lot of the good stuff too.  When I encountered positive experiences of the heart through friends, boyfriends, and family I didn’t know how to take it in.  I was certain it was fleeting and not real.  I could hear my mind questioning it when someone would share and demonstrate their love and concern.  Thankfully I was able to ingest enough so that I wasn’t teetering on the edge of madness.  I think I figured most of the reason for the love and affection was because I was doing things right.  I was meeting their approval.  So as long as I kept in line, the good stuff would keep coming.  It is a mind warp, highly conditional, and a massive set up for failure and being inauthentic.  It meant I could not fully express who I was because I always had to be sure it measured up with what is okay with you.  Working my way out of that pattern has been a long process and I still have ways to go.  It began by being so broken down and not being able to keep up the wall to a slow process of getting to know myself again or perhaps for the first time.  I have had to look at all my ideas and beliefs and determine, is this in alignment with my heart and my spirit or is it because it is what is expected?  Is this an authentic way of being for me or simply what I have always done? Thankfully on our dates, God has guided me step by step through the unknown.  Most importantly, God has opened my eyes to see that my heart needs no protection. Its fullness and vitality are always present in the mind of God.  I need only to present it to Him with sincerity and ask, how can my heart be love and receive love today?  What ideas do You have so that I may be the fullest expression of myself?  Who I am is love. Who we all are is love.  Nothing that exists can undue or make that unsafe.  It would be like undoing God.

My prayer for us an awareness of the fullness and vitality of our hearts in God’s eyes this day.

If you knew that nothing you experienced could change the vitality of your heart, what is one simple way you would be willing to live from your heart today?  Share in the comments.

God approves of our being.  How do we know this?  How can we be certain God has placed a stamp of approval on our heads?  Simple.  We are breathing.  Our breath is the simplest gift of life. What gives life?  God.  What we do with our breath is up to us. The world would have us belive that the only way of being is to constantly be working to meet its approval.  The difficulty with this idea is that everyone has a different opinion depending on their mood as to what meets their approval.  There are certain societal expectations, but then if one travels to another country or spends time in another culture the approval measure shifts.  What is acceptable in one place is unacceptable in another.  Just think about how often we change our ideas about what is okay and right.  I have found that if I get quiet enough and check in with my own heart I get a better gauge.  In that space I can ask the question: what is going to cause me to have a sense of purpose and meaning about life?  What will encourage me to keep breathing and use my breath in a way that gives life as well as sustains my own?  These are not easy questions to answer but they are often simple answers.  When I live in accordance with the truth of my spirit–love, tolerance, kindness, acceptance I can take deeper breaths of approval.  When I remember life is about the process not the end result and am willing to grow in love I breathe easier. I am not fighting reality.

My prayer for us is to notice that which keeps our breath alive and know that in sustaining and cooperating with our breath we meet the approval of our hearts and it is enough.

If you do something that allows you to breathe easier, would you say that it meets your approval today? Share in the comments.

We are invited to a partnership with God at every moment.  We are given the free will to choose the path of love and light or choose something else.  The beauty of God is that at any moment we can choose to coordinate our efforts with God’s.  We can decide at 9:05 pm that the rest of our day will be in alignment with God’s will.  God does not bat any eye.  God is right there to accept our hand.  God is delighted that we have opted to place our hand in God’s.  There is a tenderness and acceptance that God showers upon us whenever we want to receive it.  It is never about being worthy.  Worthiness has already been determined.  The moment we begin as an idea in the mind of God we are worth it.  If we are worth a thought of God’s how can we think that we are not worthy?  Are our thoughts more powerful than God’s?  Are our ideas more creative and empowering than God’s?  I think back to one of my favorite shows, Joan of Arcadia, when Joan upon meeting God asks God to prove himself (present at the moment as a young hot teenage boy).  So he motions to a tree.  She then remarks that it is just a tree and he says, “you try making one”. It is the simplicity of the magnificence of God that defies our human understanding. Thankfully, God does not require us to understand.  We only need to open our hands, line them up with in God’s, and be willing to go along for the ride.

My prayer for us is a constant reminder of the simple magnificence of God’s unending love for us enough in this moment that we are willing to place our hand in God’s.

What kind of day might be in line for you if you were willing to place your hand in God’s just for today?  Share in the comments.

Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” I like simple and I like enough.  My heart breathes a sigh of relief when I give thanks.  My body relaxes and my soul rejoices.  It is a way of practicing acceptance, being in reality, and recognizing that all of life is a gift that is given.  Being thankful is not always easy when the circumstances I am presented with are less than ideal or terrible.  But if I truly acknowledge in my heart that God is more than any experience or situation or idea in my mind, then I have something to be thankful for.  Gratitude is the quickest way out of any kind of mind funk.  It is easy to go on with the litany of things that I don’t like or wish were different but being grateful allows me to take a step back and notice the simple joys of life.  I am thankful for my breath, being alive today, feeling whatever it is that I am feeling, not being alone, having ten fingers and ten toes, clothes to wear, a roof over my head, a mind to think, ability to choose what to focus on, and situations from which to learn and grow.  As part of my spiritual practice I write out a gratitude list of at least 10 things each night before I go to bed and I try to put several different things on there each night.  I have found over the years that when I go to bed thinking of the things I am grateful for my mind marinates in that soup all night and life is worth looking forward to in the morning.

My prayer for us is the acknowledgment that being thankful is a gift to our entire being and we can be grateful for the power of being able to give thanks this day.

If you were to list five things you are thankful for about this day, what would you put on your list?  Share in the comments.

There is something so sacred about hearing the words, I forgive you.  Whether it is directed towards you or by you it is a phrase that signifies a releasing of chains around our hearts.  The beauty of forgiveness is in its ability to be used for big and small things.  Without realizing it we have a tendency to hold on to little injuries and unmet expectations.  After a while we don’t realize how much they clutter up our hearts.  We can remember clearly injustices or wrongs done to us or by us that hold more energy, but it is the little things can eat away at our hearts and souls just as much.  When we carry those around, we have less space to love.  This means we are not able to be fully who we truly are.  Anytime that we are not being from a space of complete love we are not our full potential.  The gift of mercy that we have the capability to release others and ultimately ourselves is immeasurable.  Before I spoke the words of forgiveness to my father my heart had released the energy.  It came when I decided I didn’t want to carry the anger in my heart anymore.  It took several years but I am free now.  As I reflect upon the past year, there are little ideas and experiences that are sitting in my heart and in my mind for which I had expectations and fixed ideas that did not go as planned.  I am sure there was a person or two who bothered me or spoke unkindly to me or I to them.  As a gift of embracing a new year I have decided to ask God for the courage to release myself and forgive them.  In the end, I know we are all trying our best and some days it is harder than others. By being the experience of mercy, I free myself up to live more from my heart, to be the love that I am at my core, and share that message with others.

My prayer for us is the courage to say goodbye to 2015 by releasing all that is not love into the hands of the Merciful One who is happy to show us the depth of love that resides in our hearts today.

If you could experience the gift of mercy for yourself, who or what might you be willing to let go of today? Share in the comments.

When we become consciously aware of the magnitude of God’s love for us and every living energetic being we are blown away.  It is beyond a mind comprehension or understanding it is an awareness.  It is like being in a room filled with illuminating lights that glow in and around us.  It is like being held in a big hand that is soft and gentle and just the right temperature.  God’s love is who God is.  Filled with God’s love is who we are. Our greatness is not dependent upon what we do or who we see or what we say or think.  Our greatness is inherent because we are a creation of God.  We focus so much on the outer expression of who we are in our physical selves and measure our worth by the world’s standards.  But why would something outside of us hold greater importance than the very essence that created us?

My prayer for us is a willingness to step outside of the world’s view of us and step into the lit up stadium of God’s love that is present in our hearts this moment.

If you knew that you were great because you were breathing in and out all day long the light and love of God but just cannot see it, what would your next decision be?  Share in the comments.

God creates us to be the fullest manifestation of love.  Through this love we are called to embrace the joys of life.  When we are present to the amount of love that exists in our own hearts we cannot help but feel true joy.  Joy is more than happiness.  Joy is an interlacing experience that allows us to sustain hope even when we don’t feel it.  Joy is the underlying understanding that God is good and so are we.  Joy is th expression and experience of confidence in God to be who God is revealed to be both within us and without us.

My prayer for us is to claim to the power of joy as part of who we are because we are of God today.

If you believe even just a little bit more than usual that joy is interwoven into your being today what words might you use to say how you are when asked today?  Share in the comments.

Each of us is a gift.  God calls us to be alive in the present moment so that we and others can experience the gifts of each other’s presence.  As I was walking down the street recently, I was thinking about how it is never a mistake the people we encounter in our daily lives.  It is all an orchestration of exactly what we need and with whom we are called to interact and be touched by.  It unfolds the tapestry of our lives and creates a pattern of beauty and magnificence that hangs in the rooms of our soul carried in our hearts.  As I was thinking about this I saw a woman walking on the sidewalk coming towards me and I thought, even she is someone with whom I am supposed to cross paths.  I could walk by without looking at her or I could take in the face of someone whom is meant to be in my life for a moment.  As I looked up and at her directly she smiled,my heart was touched, and I found myself smiling back at her.  She could have just as easily looked away but she chose on some level to contribute a smile to my life.  How lucky am I to receive such a lovely gift?  God smiled at me through this woman whose name I will never know.  But the smile that came across her lips and lit up her eyes will forever be embedded in my brain.

My prayer for us is the insight to recognize that our very presence in this moment is the gift we are given to share this day with all that we come across including ourselves.

If you knew that being present in one moment of your life would alter the lift of another what kind of contribution would your gift be today?  Share in the comments.