When God designed us, that is who was designed. We were given certain physical traits, talents, personality distinctions, and life situations based on where we popped out. God created us to be ourselves. Not someone else’s version of who they think we should be. Not an “okay” version because now I meet with someone else’s standards. If I trust that God knew exactly what he was doing, then I have to believe that I am exactly as I should be at this moment. So much time an energy has been spent in my life wishing I was someone else or with someone else’s circumstances. When I decided to grow up I realized that I either accepted myself completely or I be willing to change it. Those are my two options. I have to start from where I am and go from there. It is only in accepting myself today that I can be open to change or be grateful for what is. My prayer for us today is that we be willing to accept the very part of ourselves that we spent yesterday disliking. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
Be in Heartedness!
So much comes out of our head that it is easy to begin to think that it is more powerful than other element of who we are. But the head is actually just the go between. Life 10% what happens and 90% our reaction to it. That means what we are experiencing is dependent on how we interpret it. In other words, what is the translation of the experience according to our mind? If we are obedient to the interpretation of only our mind, then yes, our mind is our God. What if the evaluation that comes out of our head was only one of our options? What if we paused and took time to consult with our heart and our spirit? How might our interpretations change if we connected with our Creator who is something greater than us simply by the fact that we did not create ourselves? It is easy to believe everything that comes out of our head as truth, especially because it comes to us in our own voice and we do love the sound of our own voice. 😉 Plus we are quite familiar with it and as creatures of habit, We do what we know. My prayer for us today is that we be willing to pause with one of our head statements, take a breath and let it sink down to our heart for a second opinion. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
Be in Rising!
Stepping into who we fully are in God’s world means breathing in the depth and love from which we were created. It means letting go of our ideas of how things “should” be or are “supposed” to be and recognize that everything is designed as a lesson in love. How else can we experience our true nature other than being given opportunities to live it one day at a time? We are called to rise up and stake our claim of inheritance of love. We are called to rise up into our true selves. It is not about being better or good, it is about being who we truly are. My prayer for us today is that we see whatever situations we are facing as an opportunity to grow in love and thus be more of our true selves. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
Be in Declaration!
Words gets thrown about all day long by us and by others. We create our experience by the words of description and their meanings. Words are powerful as they can change hearts and minds for better or worse. The words we speak are the ones that come out through our mouths and also the ones through out actions. It is the words in action that declare to the world who we are being in that moment. When we put words into action they become alive and profess who we believe ourselves to be and the world around us. If we are acting from automatic pilot then who we declare ourselves to be in word and deed is often something that is handed down to us. The power of our lives comes in questioning those things to determine if they still serve us. Our egos who have worked for years to set things in place for automatic pilot often looks at the questioning as an assault of some sort and we resist. This is why when someone else questions us we can get defensive. It makes sense when we remember that there was a time when we were solely dependent upon our understanding of who we are and what we do for our survival. But we are in an era of awakening where we realize that we are just as much spirit as body and mind and who we are goes beyond what we see and do. My prayer for us today is that we be open to stepping a little bit closer into the realm of spirit so that we can declare and share with the world who we are in spirit as much as body and mind. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
Be in Selflessness!
Over the years I have noticed that the quickest way to misery is to take personally what I is happening in my life. It sounds funny that it would cause such misery but I realize that when I take a personal meaning to anything then I am the focus. Once I become the focus, I look to myself for the answers. When I look to myself for the answers alone, I leave God out of the equation. There is what happens and what I make it mean. My ego is designed to always figure out where it fits in the picture, where can it define itself based on what is currently happening. My spirit defines itself beyond the current situation and circumstances. No matter what is happening I am always LOVE, TENDERNESS, DIGNITY, GRACE, PEACE, etc because my Creator designed me that way. In any given situation I am afforded the choice to act from who I truly am or assert my ego so that I stand out–for good or bad. The quickest way to do that is to take personally what is happening and then react based on that decision. If instead, I paused, connect, and remember that the situation I am facing is not about me but I can learn from it, I can grow from it, and I can be LOVE in it; it is a more peaceful experience. My prayer for us today is that we be open to not take as many things personally (think of ourselves less) as we possibly we can. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
Be in Hand-holding!
Have you ever noticed that when your hands are full you cannot grasp at anything else? Or that when you are holding hands with another you cannot also hold something else unless you both hold it. The same goes for thoughts, ideas, beliefs and ways of being. If we hold on to what we are thinking or believing there is no room for something new. We cannot hold the space full and be open at the same time for something new to come in. When I pray I try to remember to physically keep my hands open so as to signal to God and to myself that I am open to what God has in store. Such a simple gesture is one of openness and surrender. It is vulnerable and fragile. But the reality is that if my hands are full, I have no room for God. If I am holding on to the things of this world (literally and metaphorically) then I my hands are not open. And when they are open, it is not because they are empty it is because they are willing. If nothing else, I have a free hand to reach out and grasp the hand of God that is reaching out to me. Many times I forget the simplistic sense of comfort that comes from holding a hand that is bigger and stronger than my own. A hand that will guide me on my path through my heart. That is what I am open to when I don’t hold on so tight to this world and my thinking about this world. This is why so many spiritual teachers speak of being childlike–have you ever noticed the ease with which children will take hold of an adult’s hand that they trust? And they seem to find joy and comfort in doing so. We lose that innocence and become hardened by life but we can choose at any moment to let go and grab hold of God’s hand and be led on the wildest ride of our lives! My prayer for us today is when we find ourselves gripping on tightly to an idea or belief, stop and ask ourselves if we are holding on to this idea with God or instead of God? Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
Be in Compassion!
I remember in high school one of my religion classes we talked about compassion and what it really meant. I have a vague memory of learning the concept earlier in my life but for some reason it was then that we began to pick it apart. I had learned a couple of years earlier about the distinction between sympathy (feeling for) and empathy (feeling with). Compassion is defined as “sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.” It is rooted in the latin word, compati which means to suffer with. It is also has the word passion which has several definitions: strong emotion, intense sexual love, enthusiasm, and the suffering of Christ. Its root is pati which means to suffer. From my experience compassion is about coming to the suffering. Coming with comfort and understanding and placing ourselves in the heart of the other person. Being in compassion requires us to not get out of ourselves but to bring ourselves fully to another. When we connect with other human beings we have a variety of experiences but what we are experiencing is not happening outside of ourselves. It is easy to blame what we are experiencing on the other person or situation and sometimes it seems fitting . Ultimately, when we do that we deny ourselves the opportunity to draw closer to the Creation of God that we are called to know and be present to most intimately. We talk of intimacy with others but what if it is “into me I see.” When we have been there we can connect with those who are there on a level that transcends experience because we are part of One in that moment. There is no separation of us and them. We tend to think that suffering is bad, but what if suffering simply means stepping out of our ego and into the heart of God? It feels bad because our ego wants so much to hold on to the illusion that we are separate. But anyone who has ever been there to comfort someone in suffering knows there is no separation. My prayer for us today is that we be open to bringing comfort to our suffering–the parts of ourselves that we want to hide from God and recognize that God is already there and happy that we have decided to join in bringing more love to wherever we are today. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
Be in Alliance!
Letting go of who we think we are, who we think we are supposed to be and our fixed ideas of how the world is supposed to be is a process. Is happens one day at a time with a willingness to be open that our Creator has greater experiences for us than we can imagine in our limited minds. The reluctance comes from so many years of believing our heads. Living in the realm of the spirit means trusting in the unknown. Faith is not easy in my experience and when given the choice I would rather go with what I know. That means that my true alliance is with only me and when I recognize that I realize that I do not want that. Over the years I have come to recognize that if I am only aligned with me then my experience will always be limited. But when I align myself with the Spirit that created me out of love, my possibilities broaden and deepen. My prayer for us today is that we be willing to look at who or what we are in alliance with and ask God if that is what God has in store for us or maybe more. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
Be in Cooperation!
God sees us in such a beautiful light and has created us out of Love. The way that God sees us is not often how we see us. We look to the world to define us because that is the world that we are presently in . . . or is it? What if the world we are in is merely a creation of our thoughts and we are actually in a spiritual realm? Sounds too hokey pokey I know. What if all the circumstances of our lives were present so that we could become fully united with the Creator and the LOVE that makes up all of our being? What if each day was about operating as a partner to become our full selves.? This is cooperation with God. It means letting go of our ego’s objective for how things should be. The ego mind only knows this world, or rather only likes this world, because it knows the rules and certainties. When we go beyond just our experience of ego we touch the spiritual dimension for which sometimes there is no rational/mind explanation. It is a space in which we connect with in our hearts and our spirits. We have them all the day in the present physical experience, they are the times when we experience a joy and a peace that goes beyond words. Times when our hearts are moved with such love and compassion and strength of character that we see ourselves as more than we ever thought we could be. By co-operating with God each day we can live in both the physical and the spiritual realm because God is not outside of our ego’s. God is simply offering an invitation to take our ego’s on a spiritual path and trust in something greater than ourselves when we cannot rationally explain that which is more than we expected. My prayer for us today is that we be open to working as a co-operator with God towards an objective that allows us to fully experience ourselves and others for who we truly are=LOVE that has no words. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
Be in Challenging!
The flight or fight response is built-in our brain for survival. This is extremely important so that when we come across danger we can react without thinking. However our brain does not distinguish between actual danger and seeming danger because it goes by the feelings that we are having. If I am afraid of having a conversation or facing a challenge, my natural flight or fight response can kick in and before I know it I am running the other direction (or avoiding the conversation). This is why the pause is so important. It is only in the moment of breath between thought and action that we can bring ourselves to the present and acknowledge what is actually happening. My prayer for us today is that we take that breath (connection with God) and see the challenges we have in front of us as an opportunity for growth instead of the life or death situation that they feel like. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen
dailydatewithgod 