dailydatewithgod

It is our dreams and our desires that lighten us up!  It is our hopes and our intentions that move us forward and propel us into action.  When you watch someone talk about something or someone who they love, you can see it in their face.  In fact, it is written all through their being. In some you can almost sense the lightness of energy. That is how dreams, desires, passions, and hopes bring life to the world.  When they embody our spirits, our minds, and our hearts they transmit the energy of God from us to those around us.  This is why we are inspired by people when they are doing what they love and being who they are called to be.  You ever notice that when someone is sharing their dream, they are very clear?  You can see it in their eyes.  It is this distribution of energy that brings life to the world (i.e. God).  It is this light come alive in us and others that refreshes us.  It is what makes the day-to-day human experience all worthwhile.  We must hold fast to those dreams in ourselves and see what little actions we can take each day to work towards their fulfillment.  It matters little whether or not we accomplish them, though the world we live in would beg to differ.  It is the journey towards those parts of our hearts and spirits that brings new life into our lives and the lives of others.  And when we encourage others to move towards their dreams and live out their desires, we get to witness God in action.  My prayer for you today is that you may look at one small action that you can take towards a dream or a hope that you have. Then trust that God will show up to give you the courage to do so.  Thank you for refreshing the world just a little bit with your courage.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

In the Hebrew and Christian scriptures they use the word commandment to point to describe the laws that God puts in place for man.  These commandments can also be seen as paths to love.  After all, God is love, why would God command something that is not of God?  We often take these commandments as rules.  As though by following them we get some sort of prize for doing good.  The reality of it is that anything that God is going to direct or command will be in alignment with who we truly are.  So if you find that you are struggling with a commandment, perhaps it is because that area of your life lacks the power of God.  The same goes for “sin.”  The definition of the word is “missing the mark.”  When we are off track, outside of love, then we miss the mark and we experience suffering.  All the rules of religions, while seemingly constrictions, are meant to help get us back on the mark.  Then we can be in alignment with who we truly are . . . LOVE.  My prayer for you today is that you look at what is commanding your life.  If it is love, then do more of that.  If it is not love, then do less of it, just for today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There is a popular expression that I have heard many times, “We are only as sick as our secrets.”  The funny thing about secrets is that if they were something simple to do and meant to be kept quiet we would not agonize over them.  We would not have to fight to keep them from getting out, make up stories to keep them hidden, or be someone else so that no one finds out.  If something is meant to be kept quiet it simply is.  We do not have to work so hard to keep it down.  It is like Adam and Eve in the garden when they realized that they were naked.  They went into hiding.  Prior to that they were walking around in the garden with no shame or needing to hide.  It wasn’t until they grabbed hold of the idea that there was something to be covered up that they began to hide.  God who created all, knows all.  Most of the time when we try to hide, we are only fooling ourselves.  Our freedom comes in disclosing who we truly are.  Accepting ourselves warts and all.  Recognizing that there are parts of ourselves that we may not like, but using those parts to build character instead of running from them.  In the end, the more we run, the more we are chased. If we ask God for the courage to face whatever it is that we are hiding from, then we can begin to walk in the light of the truth of who we truly are.  Love doesn’t grow in the dark. My prayer for you today is that you be willing (even if you don’t want to) reveal one of your secrets to God and ask to see what God thinks of it.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Think for a moment about the vast and expansive universe in which we inhabit. I know we don’t think about it much because we are super focused on our day-to-day lives.  However, when we get a chance to gaze at the stars, see the Grand Canyon, or look out to the ocean, to see the tremendous extension of where we are in the moment, we get a sense of the vastness and grandeur of God.  More importantly, we must recognize at some point in our lives that we are part of that same Grand Design. It is so much greater than the labels and experiences we have day in and out. Who we are at our core is part of a Grand Promise of Love and Power.  We come from this tremendous gift of creation.  We are just as dazzling as the shooting star across a dark sky, the majesty of the wave that comes crashing on the shore, and the beauty of a budding rose.  We are a great promise to this world.  When God created each of us he whispered, “Look at the gift I am promising the world with this one.”  What if for today you walked through your day in that knowledge?  How would it shape who you are being, how you see yourself and all those around you?  My prayer for you today is that you give it a shot.  What have you got to lose?  Make it a promising one!  Peace~Colleen

If life is happening for me and I am called to accept life on life’s terms there is nothing to fight.  There is nothing to be concerned or worried about.  Therein lies the challenge.  The moment I begin thinking that life is not how it is supposed to be I am not in acceptance and I am not agreeing to God’s plan.  I know from personal experience that when God’s plan mirrors how I thought things might be, I am agreeable. But when things are not going the way I thought they might or hoped they might I am concerned or disgruntled or irritated. Hmm.  So my expectations are what seem to get in the way of my own happiness.  Because it is not that in those moments of discontent that God all of a sudden disappears, but rather my personal objective becomes more important than God’s.  My thinking is more important than God’s way of being.  My prayer for us today is that we may seize those moments of irritation or discontent as opportunities to realign ourselves with our Creator who has greater plans than we can imagine or expect.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

If I believe that each day is a gift, which I do, then I can also believe that each moment of decision I am being given an invitation to respond.  I can choose to respond from automatic programming or pause, take a breath, and make a powerful decision based on whatever information I have up to that point.  When faced with a decision, I can look at what I am being invited to do or be in that situation.  Will it bring me closer to my purpose or further away?  Every moment of breath I am given that opportunity.  Therefore, as I face a new day, I know that I will be extended multiple invitations to be more of my God-self or my programmed-self.  The choice is always mine.  Personally, I like the idea of a day full of invitations because on some level it makes me feel special.  To think that circumstances are presented to me for my growth.  This is much more empowering than feeling like things are happening to me and I am required to respond.  I am not required to do anything. I choose to respond either from my programming or from a pause.  My prayer for you today is that you open all your invitations and remember that the RSVP may not be required today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Do you ever notice that you keep reading or seeing a word over and over through the course of several days or weeks?  These are what I call little nudges from God. The in-between date check-ins that happen when your are in a dating relationship.  I know that if I keep being presented with the same idea multiple times it is important for me to pay attention.  Even if it is not obvious to me why it keeps popping up, I have learned to listen and ask questions.  Trust is the word that keeps coming up for me.  Many years ago I came to understand that it is not enough to just believe in God.  I must rely upon God.  I heard once that belief is like believing that Evel Knievel can make the motorcycle jump over those many cars and faith is getting on the bike with him.  What good is my belief if I never put it into practice where it counts?  Belief in action is what faith is.  Holding your breath and your hope in the power of God as you take a chance on a new relationship, talking to you boss about a raise, moving to a new city, saying goodbye to a loved one, etc.  All the things great and small that we fear we cannot do but know that we must. God is that missing ingredient or rather trust in the belief that lies within our hearts and our souls that God really is who we believe God to be.  For many it is having just those experiences in the darkest of times that allows us to see that God is greater than our human capabilities and we need to build that muscle of trust because our own power has only gotten us to where we are in that dark moment.  Those defeating experiences are not because God is not enough, but because we are not enough.  We are not enough, not because we are flawed but because by design we are not meant to be enough on our own. We are designed to connect with a power greater than ourselves and to create a community around us.  If we look at how cells are designed we see the same things.  And we on some levels are a great big walking multitude of cells.  Our design is perfect.  We are not broken or flawed, we have simply gotten disconnected.  Each day we are given opportunities to embrace the truth of who we are.  That truth is that we are part of a greater whole and while our ego wants us to believe that we are separate we must trust in a real way and take a chance that our ego is not the only  authority.  My prayer for you today is that you be willing to take one small area of belief and create a trustful experience of faith by taking a chance on God.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

We all have these stories about who we are.  Most of them were formed early on based on circumstances.  Then our ego attaches itself to the stories and over time we build a case load of evidence to support the stories.  We operate on automatic pilot from the stories and after a time we don’t even recognize that they are stories.  This is our mind’s survival mechanism.  It is actually quite brilliant because it allows us to function on a daily basis without much conscious thought.  This would all be a good thing if the stories were more aligned with who we are in our hearts and spirits.  Unfortunately, many of the stories were formed with our child mind to explain circumstances that were traumatic or disconcerting.  If we were not in the presence of adults who claimed responsibility for their behavior (i.e.–who were also acting on automatic pilot), then we as children took on the responsibility.  Children are so open that they take on things.  In fact, in the first six years of our lives our brains are on record.  It is not until we reach about age 7 that we begin to really question things. So if we experienced any disconcerting circumstances and there was not adult around to help us process it, then we formed a story that involved us somehow being responsible for what was happening.  All of our stories are quiet common.  When you encounter people who are on a spiritual path who have begun to recognize their false stories you will hear common themes: “It’s my fault.” “I am doing it wrong.” “I am not enough”, “There is not enough”  Regardless of the story that you hear when you get quiet enough to listen, it is just a story.  It is not who we are.  The story of me doing it wrong, has dogged me most of my life.  So much so that I attempted to do everything perfectly.  But guess what?  I failed, because that is not possible.  What I didn’t get until I began to turn my life around is that even if I make a mistake, it does not mean I am a mistake.  My ego will quickly go to this story when something occurs outside of my realm of understanding, even to this day.  The only remedy I have found (after doing an inventory of my life to see the reality of my part in this story), is to turn towards God when the story rears its ugly head and check in with him.  To pause and question the story is the power that we have.  So maybe, just maybe I am doing just as much right today as I am doing wrong.  Maybe, just maybe you are enough as much as you are not enough today. My prayer for you today is to wake up to the story playing in your head and hold it up to the light of God. What does your creator think of your story?  How does he invite you to create a new one?  What does God see you as doing and being right?  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

If I am to believe that we are all made in the likeness and image of God, then that means that every person is a reflection of God.  Why is it when people act in ways that I do not like or do not go according to my script, I forget that.  Perhaps it is precisely when they do not behave the way that I would like that they are being the likeness and image of God.  It is a reminder to me that I am not in charge, that things are not supposed to go according to my plans.  My ego dislikes this greatly but my spirit that trusts in a greater happening smiles at the thought. The reality is that we are encountering each other in the way that we are because that is exactly what is supposed to be happening.  In those moments of things not going my way, I am given a chance to surrender. To surrender to something greater than me going on.  Even more importantly, I get to see how I can be of service in that situation.  Maybe I am being called upon to be healing to another or to myself because the thoughts and feelings that get triggered reach me at my core.  My reaction to what is happening indicates to me what is farthest away from God in my heart.  Ultimately, I can be thankful for those people and those situations because they bring up the elements of darkness or woundedness in my heart.  Those people are therefore my healers because they cause me to turn to God in my pain and ask for help.  God can then remind me of my wholeness that I have lost sight of.  My prayer for you today is to seek where another is the healing for you and where you can be healing for another.  Rejoice in the gifts that are everywhere.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

It is easy to get attached to things of this world.  We live in a fleshy body and we feel things when in this body.  If we pay attention we realize that we are affected by energies of heat and light.  We see things with our eyes and take them at face value.  Of course we are attached to what we understand reality to be.  There is nothing wrong with that.  The “reality” is that this fleshy experience is not all there is.  That is why within ourselves, in our hearts and our spirits, we find a pulling or sometimes nagging sense to see more than what is actually there.  To look past what is a tangible reality to something deeper.  Our spirits will continually call us to a greater and deeper experience and if we listen and turn in that direction, we will find that it does not defy the fleshy experience as our egos would like us to believe.  Instead it elevates that experience.  If we remember to wear our physically lives like a loose garment and not be so attached to what the human experience will be, we will find our experience to be lighter and actually more fun.  Mostly because we don’t have to take ourselves so darn seriously. 😉 This is what God wants for us–to enjoy life but know that it is not all there is.  My prayer for you today is to see what you can wear loosely about your physical experience of life.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen