dailydatewithgod

Stop, just for a moment as you are reading this and take a deep breath.  Now place your hand on your heart and take two more slow deep breaths.  Can you feel it?  Can yousense the calm coming from your heart? I remember the first time I was drawn to do this simple little act of pause.  I stopped what I was doing and felt recalibrated to a connection with God, with a sense ofalrightness.  I can easily acknowledge that God is always simple and true as are the ways of God.  The beauty of that is I am continually given opportunities to experience that in many different ways if I am open to seeing God in a new way.  How it is that pausing and breathing and connecting with my heart allows me to feel grounded is a mystery to me, but it does.  I used to think and act as though my feet were my grounding.  They are what keep me connected to the earth.  But it is in my heart that my true connection to God and to the truth of who I am exists.  My breath is the portal and my hand is the promise that it always within my grasp.  My prayer for us today is that we remember when things get complicated that our grounding (God) is only a hand on the heart and a breath away.  Make it a great one !  Peace~Colleen

One of the wondrous elements of being alive is that ability to choose that life.  Each morning as I take a breath I have the opportunity to say yes and choose the day that God has set before me.  When it is a day that feels in alignment and trust of God I am grateful for that choice even if I wake up and feel a little off.  Then there are those mornings that I would much rather hit the snooze button and think: “Really God, you thought I deserve another day with the opportunity to show up?  I am going to need your help with that every step of the way today.”  Sometimes after our date time I feel more on course, other times I find myself wondering if that time was even productive.  At each moment, with each breath I have the gift to choose my experience.  A little later in the day when I am in traffic on the way to work, I can again choose my experience.  It is not about what is actually happening it is about my perspective.  On a good day I see the purpose and the gift in people and situations.  On a less than ideal day I see problems and things to get through.  I am 100% responsible for my mindset.  I cannot always get out of my head and therein lies the humility of asking God to step in on my behalf.  God, help me to see this (person, situation, feeling, etc.) as You see it. In the times that I forget that I have a choice, I am falling prey to some ideal that is beneath my very essence and I do not think God would ever want that for me.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to take full responsibility for our choices this day (or at least an hour of the day) and notice who we are being when we own those choices.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Wholeness and completeness is reality in God’s world.  We live in a world of separation and pieces.  Our ego’s do not exist in a world of Oneness because they need to stand out.  This is neither good nor bad, just important to notice the distinction.  Life is also about the process according to Spirit.  So we look at a task and see completed or uncompleted, our spirit looks at a task and focuses on who we are being.  We are human beings, not human doings.  Every morning during my date time, I turn over to God my accomplishments for the day so I am less likely to get caught up in my to do list and my plan and trust in God’s plan for the day.  Recently I feel a sense that I need to evaluate this idea of accomplishments because this is perhaps not the way God sees it.  In all the scriptures across all faiths that I have read about various spiritual people are stories of people who showed up.  That seems to be God’s idea of accomplishment–being in the present, being my truest self in that moment with God as authentically as I can be.  So maybe all these unfinished elements in my life or in my day are a representation of whether or not I am showing up, not a measurement of all the things I still need to do.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to seeing who we are being as the point of our day and less of what we are doing.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

We are courageous beings!  It is in our make-up by the Designer.  We may have convinced ourselves otherwise because we have adapted stories based on situations in which we were less courageous, but an experience does not change truth. Deep within us is a power greater than ourselves that we are connected to when we get quiet and align ourselves with that power.  When aligned our energy is bright and powerful, bold and creative, and life seems to flow.  When we are aligned with the world’s labels and designs we are burdened and stressed, constrained and weighted down, because we have taken on a layer of being that covers up our true selves.  When we can not boldly shine as we are called to do, our dimness becomes daunting.  My prayer for us today is that we have the willingness to trust the boldness that is part of our design and access it from the quiet of our being.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

One of the marvelous constructs of our minds is our imagination.  It has great depth and the creativity within it is amazing.  We can use it to escape as well as create. We often imagine all kinds of scenarios in our heads about things that are yet to happen.  Sometimes those projections can be positive and other times negative.  The brain does not distinguish between projection and reality. It will take these imaginations and run with them, put to work the possibilities of creating them and we are off to the races.  What then happens to the moment we are currently in?  What about this day?  What about where I am physically?  I am grateful for my mind’s capability of imagination for better or worse.  There was many a time when my current situation was not tolerable and I needed to escape in my mind.  As a child I did not have many other options.  But now I am an adult and I have other tools to face uncomfortable situations.  I can physically remove myself or speak up for myself as the situation calls for it.  I can ask God for the courage to be present in the discomfort or the eyes through which to see the gift of this day, this moment.  Then I can use the gift of my imagination to create a future that comes from a place of being at peace. My prayer for us today is that we ask for the courage to be in this day and the eyes to see the gifts and possibilities right in front of us.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

In this moment there exists a beauty thatsurpasses understanding.  This beauty has the subtle quality of existing without even being noticed unless we make a conscious effort to.  It is like a running current that follows the path of the stream and makes its way home to the ocean day after day.  There is a flow of energy that is occurring and its design is set from the beginning by its Creator.  Our lives are the same way.  There is an infinite design and designer that is involved in the creation of our lives.  We can awaken to and align ourselves with that path or we can forge out on our own.  Perhaps there is room for both.  Like most rivers and streams there is a merging of other rivers and streams (different paths) along the way to the ocean.  We consistently have things that contribute to our lives in a big and small ways and shape the course of our lives by how much of them we take in.  Eventually we all make it to the same home and are connected to the same source.  My prayer for us today is that we notice the divergent paths that intersect with ours and what contribution we let them make to our day.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There is a space that is not limited by time and place in which our spirit resides. A space that is abundant and full, has no expectations or things to do, it is complete and whole.  This space exists within our spirits which are housed in a physical body and mind that is in place bound by time and place, has limits and thinks that it is in parts.  This duality presents a conundrum and often a disconnect between our mind and our hearts.  Thus, the human struggle that we often feel when we find ourselves in an experience that reconnects us to our truest selves.  When we reach the limits of the physical experience and our ego’s stories no longer serve us, we find ourselves at a cross roads.  It appears like a breakdown and an ending because our ego feels like it is dying.  Instead we are being given an opportunity to embrace life of our spirit.  It is scary and uncertain only because it is unfamiliar.  Our ego which is invested in comfort tells us that this uncomfortable or unknown space of growth is wrong somehow. This is where we need something greater than ourselves that designed our spirits. God is always ready and available to remind us that we are more than we “think” we are.  We are deeper and more connected than the sense of separation that we feel and All Is Well. My prayer for us today is that we be open to listening in the depths of our hearts for God’s voice that reminds us that We Are Well.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

We live each day in this beautiful world with plenty to draw our attention.  There is never a shortage of things to see, do, and experience.  Then on top of that for those who live in major cities there is even more specifically design to capture our attention.  Those who have a TV or an electronic device can add that to the list as well. And none of this incorporates the things that we are paying attention to in our minds that are not currently happening–the past and the future. It is funny how we measure the different options of focus.  Some as seen as a distraction while others as worthy of our attention and those are the things just outside of ourselves.  How often do we stop to notice if the thinking in our own minds is a distraction or a worthy focus?  Where our focus is our energy is.  What we focus on expands.  The focus we set in our minds determines what we see outside of ourselves.  We usually think it is the opposite but the attention of our minds colors what we see or don’t see outside our minds.  During my date time I find that I am consistently drawn again and again by God to look at what I am grateful for.  It doesn’t mean that I ignore those things that I am troubled by or need my attention, but when I start with what I am grateful for I am shaping my focus.  Then I can see what there is to be grateful for about whatever I encounter throughout the day.  It is the simplicity of presence to what is.  There is always something to be grateful for, always.  My prayer for us today is that we start our focus wherever we are in our day and notice that which we are genuinely grateful for and go from there.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There exists within each of us this every burning light.  It is the light placed within our spirits before our creation.  It is the light that was lit in the mind of God and the thought moment of our conception.  It is a light that burns deep within us and throughout us if we let it.  It is the light of hope, love, and everlasting connection to Our Creator.  We sense it when we experience the love of God through others, through living our purpose, and in the stillness of our breath.  This lightness of being is God’s gift to us over and over again reminding us that when we feel weighted down by the world, by our thoughts, and by our hurts that there is another way.  It requires us to let go even if for just a moment of the idea that we must do in order to be free.  The reality of God is that we are free when we are being.  When we are being we are living in the light and we sense that freedom by the lightness of being.  I sense it when I connect with another human being in a genuine way, when a trusted friend kindly listens to me bear my heart, when I am aligned with my spirit and living my purpose, when I let go of a fixed idea that I know how something is going to happen, etc.  There is a lightness that occurs when I am trusting that God is my everything and my job is to show up and be of service.  My prayer for us today is that when we feel weighted down by the world and our minds, we have the courage to pause, take a breath and ask God for the courage to connect and be the lightness of love that exists within us.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

In this moment in which you have taken a breath the Great Creator made a decision.  A decision that is not so much an action of mind but rather just who God is.  That decision or action of being is to choose you.  Over and over again I am reminded that the reason I am here is because God wants me to be.  The reason I AM is because God wants me to be.  All these years of thinking I wasn’t wanted, loved, or appreciated, I was simply looking in the wrong place to experience it.  I looked to circumstances, people, and myself.  Sometimes it was there but often not in the way that I needed it to fill my heart. So I made a decision that I was not worth the time or effort.  We all have this God-sized hole in our hearts and when we fill it with something other than God we experience a disappointment.  But the magic of opportunity is still present because that experience of disappointment can lead us to search fervently for the One who would fill that hole in such a profound way that we need not seek anything outside of ourselves again.  Each day when I spend my date time with God (and throughout the day) I am reminded that the Great Creator who designed the mountains and the seas, created feelings of joy, and makes sure the flowers grow took great care in manifesting me.  This One desires to be close to me.  Do I want to be with me as much as God does?  If not, what makes me think I know better than God?  My prayer for us today is that we be open to seeing being with ourselves as God sees it.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen