dailydatewithgod

God is connection. Connection is the truth of love.  When we find ourselves listening to the longing of our hearts many of us will admit that despite seeming acts to the contrary we want to truly connect with others.  So we look for ways of creating hopefully healthy connections with the people in our lives.  Human beings are relational people.  We are social beings and we long to be joined with others in thought, in presence, in heart and in spirit.  There is a fundamental need in our existence that drives us to be in alliance with others.  It is a beautiful part of our nature.  Alliances created out of love for the purpose of bringing more love is the force that changes the world.  But what about those times when we feel not worthy of connection or not able to connect?  I know I have had my share of moments of isolation where I didn’t want to connect.  More often, I dealt with a sense of not being worthy of connection.  I thought I first had to prove the reason for my existence.  I needed to explain myself to you, whomever you are, so that I could be included.  But our alliance with others is not dependent upon the proof of existence that we provide if we come from the knowledge and inner knowing that God created us and therefore we matter.  We can participate in this game of connection and alliance because we are breathing.  No other permission or explanation is necessary.  In spending time on my dates with God I participate in the greatest alliance possible and out from that flows genuine connection with myself and those around me.  Now when I have moments of feeling on the out skirts or not able to connect, I know I simply need to turn to my relationship with God first, get my heart set right, and then I can see others and all the ways we are connected.  My prayer for us is the courage to look to God to establish our baseline alliance out from which will grow our genuine connection to ourselves and others today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God’s design is in and through all things in existence. God’s purpose of amplifying love expounds through all that has been and will be created.  As an essential part of creation, we are all called to do the same.  Each of our experiences are an opportunity to grow and learn how to love, share love, create love, abide in love.  We are gifted with energy that  moves through us. This energy in motion is powerful and sometimes seems overwhelming.  Its facets are wide and deep and sometimes seem to have control over us.  We talk about emotions as though they are more powerful than us.  We say we get swept away by them, we are carried by them, and we need to move past them.  Just as we cannot suppress our breath, we cannot suppress this energy  in motion.  But what if this energy in motion is an indication of our thinking.  Perhaps it needs to run its course or it is calling us to be open to alter our thinking. We are not ruled by it.  We are invited to  channel it in a healthy and respectful manner.  We are the guardians of this energy and can choose to direct it towards love. I know for many years I tried avoiding and suppressing my emotions.  Being that they were present in my mind and body and I ran from feeling present in my body as it was the enemy in my eyes, I wanted nothing to do with it.  This only resulted in me needing to use mind altering substances such as sugar to keep those emotions from what I assumed would consume me.  I now recognize that avoiding, judging, or doing anything besides recognizing this energy in motion as an indication of my thinking causes an unhealthy interruption in the flow of life.  Today I ask God for the courage to pay attention to this energy and how it is calling me to love no matter how it presents itself.  My prayer for us in an openness to listen to the energy that we are carrying in our minds and our bodies and ask God for the insight as to how we might best use it to generate more love for ourselves and others today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is choice.  God is empowerment.  When I engage in a relationship with God I do so at my own discretion.  There is no forcing of it.  There is no shoulding about it.  It is a relationship that I make a priority in my life because unlike anything else in my life there is a wholeness and a love that exists when I am aligned with my creator.  There have been times in my life when I engaged in this relationship because it was what I thought I was supposed to do but that is not the case today. The underlying connection has been there since before I was born but I chose to express it in only acceptable or expected fashions.  Today as a grown woman my participation in my relationship with the Divine is at my discretion.   It no longer has to look like others might expect.  It no longer has to fit into someone else’s definition of a relationship with God.  All bets are off because when I sense God drawing me closer and opening my eyes to an understanding of love that goes beyond what I already know, I am in.  Only in letting go of my ideas and expectations of God and how God will show up have I been gifted with the chance to know love and peace that surpasses all understanding.  I realize that this way of being in relationship with God is a daily walk, a moment by moment encounter that reaches places in my heart and soul that have yet to be awakened.  My prayer for us the courage to use our discretion in saying yes to God’s knock on our heart so that we may know love beyond what we imagine love can be for today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is flowing. God is contagious.  The simple idea that there exists and entity that created me that wants nothing more than to be with me through all my ways of being is evidence of a power greater than myself.  I am the first one to want to cut out a part of my life, an event from my past, or avoid a situation I am faced with.  I don’t think I can handle it.  I don’t think I am worth it.  I don’t think what I want matters.  If it were up to me and my thinking I would not have only thrown out the baby with the bath water, I would have tossed the tub while I was at it.  God’s presence bubbles up from within each of us to give us that extra grip to hang on and not abandon ourselves just yet.  The effervescence of God goes beyond the warm fuzzies of support and excitement. With God is an undeniable enthusiasm for the abundant life of all of creation.  The passion and arousal of God ignites all of us to take one more breath despite what our heads tell us. It comes from our heart which bears the imprint of our Creator.  My prayer for us is the courage to lean in to the breath that comes through the pumping of our heart and bears the signature of the Effervescent One in the very moment today that we want to exit left. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is grand.  God is overarching.  We begin each day with a clean slate.  Our potential is untapped.  Our vision is clear.  Our breath is fresh.  In these beginning moments we can choose how we want to steer our day.  We can choose if we want to make an impact in our lives and the lives of others. We can fulfill our capacity for life by choosing to own and embrace our capability. Not someone else’s capability. Not someone else’s expectations of our potential.  Not our own expectations of our capabilities.  I have found that God sees me as greater and more capable than I ever could.  I am limited by my human mind’s perception of what I can and cannot do. I am not capable of perceiving the possibilities of love.  It is only when I give things a try to see what is outside the box of my mind do I begin to see what my capability is today.  I get to make the choice each day with each waking breath.  My best days are those I choose to place my hand in God’s as we begin our date and ask to be shown what God can do through me. Then I see my capacity far exceed what I think is possible in life and love. My prayer for us is a willingness to  acknowledge that we need not limit ourselves as we did yesterday if we choose God’s definition of our capacity this day.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

God is the beginning.  God is formation.  Being in relationship with God means allowing ourselves the opportunity to develop.  We are not a fixed state in time or space.  We begin with the infusion of life from our creator and spend the rest of our lives developing into the persons we become. Everything in our lives today is a result of all the thoughts and actions that we have embarked upon since our conception.We are invited by God to create with God by aligning ourselves with the thinking of God.  We do not have to go back through and undo all the non-God thinking or acting.  If we place ourselves in the gentle hands of our creator and ask to be shaped and molded from our bud state to the flower state then we will be shown an easier path than we come up with.  The world is harsh and full of fear.  God’s world is full of hope and promise.  When we consider the kind of environment fit for growing and developing, which would you choose?  We can still be in this world and grow as though we are in God’s world because the two are one in the same.  Which one we see depends upon the lens through which we are looking at life.  My prayer for us today is a willingness to allow ourselves to grow from bud to flower by planting ourselves in the thinking of God. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is 100%.  God is in this deal with us.  God did not create us and then take a vacation.  God is ever-present and actively pursuing us.  Due to our fixed expectations of God we often do not see the divine involvement in our lives.  God invites us to acknowledge the presence of Spirit and join a partnership that thrives.  If we are busy thinking about how we are separate, not enough, need to be or have more, then we are on a different frequency from God.  God sees us as whole and complete and the love with which we were created.  God will not lower his thinking to fit ours. We must step up our perspective by letting go of our thinking based primarily on the ego if we are to be in equal partnership.  My prayer for us a willingness to accept God’s partnership invitation by noticing where our thinking about ourselves or others is less than God’s thinking of us today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is enchanting.  God is mystery. God is delightful.  As children of an All Powerful being we are invited to discover a world of possibilities.  We are tasked with a chance to explore a million different things and learn from them.  By stepping into this world of learning our hearts grow.  By discovering what is out there we open up our inner world.  To walk this path of discovery with God asks us to stay connected to the one who has opened up the world to us.  When we are aligned with who God knows us to be we are not subject to falling for the illusion of becoming defined by the things that happen.  Each experience has the potential to define us or shape us.  We get to choose.  When we are misaligned we define ourselves by our outer experiences.  When we are aligned we are able to stay rooted in the truth of who we are and remember that we are here to discover.  In this universe of learning where being teachable is the ultimate attitude we can discover a multitude of things with each experience. No longer are circumstances good or bad.  Instead occurrences become those that either aid us in growing closer or further from the love that we are and remember ourselves and every one else to be.  My prayer for us is a willingness to practice discovering the moments of today as opportunities for growth in love  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God resounds.  God implores. God abounds.  To be aligned with God is to say yes to a calling to live fully.  To claim the abundance that is God as part of our human experience is not something easily understood.  It seems to go contrary to a number of ideas from various authoritative sources that we are to be simple and small.  The confusion stems from not acknowledging that within each of us exists dual natures.  Yes we are fully children of an Almighty and Abundant God.  And yes we live and inhabit this physical universe that has limitations. The key is to remember which one gets the last word.  Given that our creator is the originator of the physical universe, I choose to place my emphasis on the former.  There is a line in book Alcoholics Anonymous which simply states, “Either God is everything or he isn’t.” Each moment of our lives is an opportunity to place emphasis on which we believe-that God is either everything or God is not.  If I claim to believe that God is everything and I believe that no matter what happens or appears to happen cannot undo God then I can rely upon the opportunity to live fully.  I can take the chance that there is something other than the fear story that is running through my mind. God was in existence long before human fear ever appeared on the landscape.  The gift of the compassion of God is in God’s awareness of our fearful nature.  God does not expect us to not experience fear, but hopes that we will ask for God’s help in moving forward any way.  If we emphasize all the reasons there are in our lives to step away or play small because we fear the outcome then we step away from our belief that God is more than our human nature.  If we emphasize our belief despite all seeming evidence to the contrary of God being who God has always shown he/she/it to be, then we can courageously step into a full life.  My prayer for us is a desire to emphasize our belief in the nature of God as being more powerful than whatever we might fear for one of our decisions today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is remarkable.  God is undefinable.  God is moving.  We enter into relationship with Our Creator by accepting an invitation to be a part of a precious experience of life.  All of life is sacred because it has been created from the sacred Spirit.  Its root and thus its energy is eternal. There is nothing in existence that doesn’t make sense or lacks the wonder of God.  We fill our heads with specific definitions of sacred and turn a blind eye to all that does not fall into those definitions.  When we are willing to step outside of what we think we know and embrace the mystery of the sacred presence in all things, we notice a preciousness of life that seemed to not be there before.  As a direct results of my daily dates with God I notice that the world holds a wonder that was not there before.  It is as though time with God has let me in on a little secret.  The secret of knowing that no matter what happens I can find something precious in it.  It can be a simple as the miracle of a tear on my cheek that cools my face when I am hot with sadness and anger.  It can be as delightful as feeling the corners of my mouth curve upward as I smile upon hearing my niece’s voice.  These experiences coming with one breath after another reveal themselves as the sacred preciousness of being alive.  My prayer for us today is an openness to seeing the sacred preciousness of our own lives in one moment today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen