dailydatewithgod

When we are young we look to our elders (parents, teachers, etc.) to provide cues as to whether how we are being is on track.  Is it what they expected?  Are we doing okay?  Do we meet with their approval?  This helps guide and shape how we behave in the world in which we survive.  Hopefully during that time we were guided by people who had enough sense of self that they didn’t work to make us who they wanted us to be but our best selves.  Some of us had that experience, others did not.  At this point, it really doesn’t matter. Many of us, myself included, simply carried out this way of being into our adulthood.  It was no longer our teachers and parents.  Instead we look to our bosses, friends, cultural norms, often still our parents to provide cues for us.  We grew up physically, but we did not mature in our sense of self.  We unfairly placed dependence on other people to tell us if we were right or wrong.  Some of us placed this person of authority inside our head and we don’t need another person because we so quickly condemn ourselves.  There is nothing wrong with this, the only question is, does it still work?  For me, I found that I was trying so hard to bend to what I “thought” other people expected of me.  I didn’t spend much time looking at what God expected of me or what I wanted to be. I “thought” to be safe and okay in this world I must play the role I have been assigned by others and just suck it up.  The only problem was that I began to slowly blot myself out in an effort to “please” everyone.  The reality of it is that I wasn’t actually “pleasing” anyone, I was simply making what I “thought” others wanted my god.  I might as well have handed them a sign. What I was missing out on was who God (not religion or society), but a loving God who created my every being wants me to be.  When I got quiet enough I discovered that God wants me to be me.  Not the me that I “think” others want me to be, but who I am from the inside out.  This meant a process of getting to know myself and stop and pause to see if who I am being and what I am doing resonates with me.  It is a journey.  A journey of growing up. It is a beautiful journey that I embark upon to the best of my ability each day. My prayer for us today is that we be willing to set aside all that we think we know about who we are and simply ask God who do you want me to be today?  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

Children as such an example for us on how to live.  They know what it means in the moment if only because they have very little past and the future seems so far away.  Mostly they are good at the moment because the current moment holds such newness and wonder that they do not need to think about what comes next. They think it is amazing that the grass grows and the wind blows the leaves off the tree.  When was the last time we held that kind of wonder for the world?  It has probably been a while.  Does that mean that the leaves falling lack any wonder?  Not so much.  The things full of wonder have not changed but the eyes through which we see have changed.  We have so much information coming at us all day long that we tend to look past the simple wonders because our brain is already familiar with them.  What if we were willing to fill out days with a little more wonder?  What if you could take a moment in your day to see something you take for granted with new eyes? Did you know that God sees you with wonder each day?  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to see something we always see with curiosity and playfulness so that we may cultivate more wonder in our lives.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Life continues moving forward whether we want it to or not.  The decision point becomes when we discern how we want to create that forward experience.  It will be a mirror of what is currently going on in our lives.  So changing what we will experience in the future comes when we take responsibility for what is happening now.  I know it can be hard to wake up and realize that what you are facing is what you have created but who else is responsible?  Our thinking of today determines our feelings which impels us into action.  Our actions demonstrate our character and our character shapes our destiny.  If we start by adjusting our thinking, our perspective changes and it impacts our lives.  The key is to begin to pay attention to the thoughts we let run through our minds.  Our minds are programmed for survival and we can be grateful for that.  Our hearts and our spirits are programmed for connection with others and how to love and be loved.  Those two can work together if we invite God in and wake up to how we can be the agent of change in our lives.  It is not up to anyone else.  Our forward thinking is dependent on our thinking today.  My prayer for us today is to begin to take responsibility, not blame, for the life we are now living and ask God how we might make it more into what we want. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Do you get that you are not supposed to be like everyone else?  Do you get that God created you in such a way that only you can be God’s expression of love to the world?  We all have the same mission–to be love, to share love, to take in love, and to give love.  How I embody love is going to be different from my sister or my mother.  I share love differently than my coworker or my mentor.  Yes, there are some similarities, we are all human beings.  We cannot express love the same way a flower does, but similarities does not mean a carbon copy.  If God wanted you to be love the same way that your father is, then he would have created another one of your father.  So often we look to other people to determine if how we are being is okay.  This is understandable, especially when we are young because we get our cues from mirroring a way of being from our parents, teachers, and others in authority.  But after a time, we are called to grow up and step into our own skin.  We are beckoned and allured by our God to step fully into relationship with Him so that we can begin to understand how we are called to express love as only we can.  The unfamiliarity can cause discomfort because it is growth.  But it is a good kind of discomfort.  It may be painful but it is a pain that stretches our hearts and compels us beyond the initial programming of our minds.  At the end of that pain is a connection with an infinite love source that is so much more than the love we experience with our fellow humans–even that of our parents or our lovers.  It is the source of all love and ultimately we must face it alone.  We can be transformed by love only to the degree that we are willing to let go of what we think love is and what love does.  God calls us to change our hearts, to restore them to their purity of spirit so that we may carry forth into the world a heart that is free from anger, resentment, grief and disappointment.  Our life’s travel therefore becomes a process of letting go.  Letting go to make more room for love in our hearts so that we can turn around and give more love to the world.  A world that is so much in need of love in only a way that you can give it.  This all sounds very ethereal and mystic, but each day when we connect or even attempt to connect with God we step a little closer in that direction.  Even more magnanimous is the fact that no matter how many times we shy away, God stands firm in his call to us and rejoices with each step towards him.  My prayer for us today is that we acknowledge each little step that we take towards God even if it is a step that is taken forward after ten steps back.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

We tend to think that our words carry so much value for other people. We watch how we say things, make sure we word our emails correctly, say only nice things, don’t say things we think might anger another person.  The irony, of course, is that our words are only a small part of what we are expressing.  In fact, so much more of what we say comes from our physical presence and our tone.  Who we are is expressed more in our actions than our actual words.  At the same time we do not pay as close attention to the words we use with ourselves.  If I were a betting woman, I would bet that most of us would not speak to others the way we speak to ourselves. Yet, the words we speak to ourselves in our minds, get conveyed through our actions.  How we carry ourselves is a direct result of our self-talk.  If we heard ourselves speaking out loud to another human being the things that we allow us to say to ourselves we would be shocked.  Our first course of action, is to invite God to intercede with our thoughts of ourselves.  Perhaps it is some evolutionary survival skill for things to not be enough or for us to push ourselves, but the slave driver that we have running rampant in our own minds needs to be outlawed.  One of the precious gifts that I get from my date with God each morning is some quiet time to allow God to enter my mind before I allow the world to jump in.  It happens before I check email or cell phone messages, turn on a tv or a radio.  Some mornings, I don’t need outside influences to start a story in my mind of fear and trepidation or drive to do and be better.  So I give God that time first thing to restore my mind to its true purpose and sense of identity.   Our time in the morning is the only way I can be sure that what I express and live throughout the day has any chance of being right-sized.  It doesn’t just happen at the beginning of the day but I am more likely to remember God throughout the day if I start with God.  My prayer for you today is to have the courage to pause when you find yourself reacting to life and ask what are you thinking about you in that moment? Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

It is hard to imagine, but people who bother us are a tremendous gift.  At the very least, they wake us up from our programming by throwing something unexpected into our day. But more than that, they create a reaction in us that indicates an area that is lacking love.  Only when we recognize it can we bring it to God and say, “show me how You see this.  How can I reconcile this with love?”  If there are no mistakes or wasted time and experiences and everything is learning, then that includes moments when we are bothered by another human being.  The key is remembering that we are bothered.  They are just doing what they do.  They are not thinking about how they can bother us.  The disturbance is coming from us.  This is good news because we can change or at least be open to change in us.  We cannot change other people and it is not about changing others to suit ourselves.  My prayer for us today is when we encounter situations or people who bother us, we have courage to pause for a moment and connect within ourselves and our God to see where we can realign in love.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Through the course of our lives we have many opportunities to choose how we want to be.  Each day is brand new and it is up to us who we want to be for that day and for that moment.  Who we are is of God.  It is from God that we originated which means that it is in our essential nature to be like God.  At our core we are love, kindness, patience, power, serenity, gentleness, conviction, tolerance, balance, integrity, courage, and so much more.  Which one of your God-like qualities do you want to embody today?  I turn to God during our date and ask, who do you want me to be today?  Show me how you want me to live the life you have imagined for me.  Sometimes when I encounter a situation, I know how to be good (God)natured, but sometimes I am stumped.  I used to think it was about bending over backwards for everyone else and being who they wanted me to be, but thankfully I realized that when I did that I was making that other person my God.  If there is one thing I know, it is that I only have one God and no human being is my God.  Being God-natured means being the best of who I am at any given moment and being willing to mess it up in my attempt to do so.  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to step into who we truly are even if in just one situation.  Then we can know the feeling of being aligned with all that is.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

One of the many ways that we inspire people is by being who we truly are.  In fact, it is the only way that we truly inspire people because it is our authenticity that they are responding to.  They sense the freedom that exudes from someone who is simply being and doing who they are.  They pick up on the freedom that comes from not expending energy trying to turn or shift or cram themselves into something that they are not hoping that enough people on the way will approve or disapprove.  There is a lightness of being that accompanies authenticity that is life-giving.  The beauty and the inspiration comes because the energy is enlivening.  By being who we truly are we give permission to those around us to do the same.  This story that we are trying to please other people or make them happy is a lie.  We simply want to be loved and accepted for who we truly are and that only comes by taking the risk that who we are is enough.  We must override our minds that tell us we are only our minds and our bodies and step into the spirit of life that we have come to share with the world.  This is where God is able to light our path and endow us with enough courage to moment by moment step into that liberating self.  My prayer for us today is to listen to that part of our hearts that expresses itself with abandon and finds freedom in just being the beautiful gift of ourselves.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

When people are in their A-game you here the expression that they were in the zone. In other words they were completely focused on the present moment and all of their energy was on what was happening in that moment.  We can take that same principle and apply it to our everyday lives.  Why not take this day and be in the zone of gratitude?  Whatever is happening, whatever comes along unexpectedly place it in the zone of gratitude.  Being in gratitude shifts my perspective so quickly.  I would not have believed it until I began to practice it.  Sometimes the simplest prayer is “Thank you.”  Whatever happens, whatever crosses our path, “Thank you.”  I am not always willing to see things through this lens, but God, as usual, is there to help out.  I say, “God, I am having this experience.  It is neither what I expected nor what I wanted but it is what is.  Show me how I can be grateful for it.”  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to abandon our own agenda and step into the zone of gratitude–just for today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Our amazing minds our a tremendous gift and a beautiful part of our design as human beings.  I am personally grateful for the functions of my mind that I don’t even have to think about or rather that happen without me being conscious of them.  Breathing, heart pumping, legs walking, telling it to store certain memories and thoughts, etc.  It all happens in a very automatic process.  Our brains are programmed to ensure our survival, thank God!  We are also spirit.  Our spirit connects us to the greater world about us.  It reminds us that we are more than our bodies, more than our minds, and more than the current experience we are having today.  But because our spirits transcend our minds, it is hard for our minds to wrap itself around our spirit.  It doesn’t always make sense.  We see evidence of our spirit working when we are moved with our hearts to connect with other people–to go beyond our own survival and to experience something that aligns us with something greater than who we are in body and mind.  Often there are no words to describe this greater experience.  And sometimes when we begin to trust that it is just as real as our survival techniques, our minds rebuke it.  Our egos sense some competition and work hard to discredit it.  “How impractical.  That is crazy talk. You are dreaming!”–and the like. This is where the small quiet voice of God comes in to remind us–this is who you are.  This is who you are in Me.  This is as true as the experience of your mind.  My prayer for us today is to look consciously for those moments of spirit and just in those moments trust that they are just as great as us putting one foot in front of the other.  Make it a greater one! Peace~Colleen