dailydatewithgod

I read one of the funniest blog’s yesterday that had a list of reasons that a three-year old might be throwing a temper tantrum.  It made me laugh out loud, not only because I am familiar with three-year olds but because I saw some similarities in my own thinking.  Isn’t it funny that when we are kids all we want is to grow up and be independent and not have people tell us what to do or how to be, but then when we get there we don’t want to take responsibility for our thinking and our behavior?  I think we mask it a lot of the time.  We put up a good face of responsibility and accountability all the while inside we are still that three-year old child who really wants to throw a fit because something is not working or so and so cut us off in traffic or we didn’t get what we wanted.  I think three-year olds are brilliant because they at least let it out.  As a adults we often push it down and then use something to cover it up or we let it fester and then one more thing happens and we blow up.  No wonder people shutter when they see a kid throwing a fit in public–it probably reminds us of ourselves.  I sometimes just want to walk up to the kid and say, “hey, I get you, it sucks and I would like to tell you it gets better, but your way or the highway probably won’t last long.”  Of course a three-year old would not understand that nor would they stop long enough to listen.  But today I woke up and I am a thirty-something woman in a grown up body who is not dependent upon anyone for my survival or well-being.  No one makes me do or feel anything, I have the choice.  Yes, stuff happens and I don’t get my way all the time and I am disappointed–this is life.  The beauty of the life that I am privileged to live today is that I am connected to God.  I am trusting that there is a greater plan involved.  Unlike the three-year old inside of me who wants to throw a temper tantrum, I can be consoled by the fact that maybe just maybe there is something greater at work.  I can handle the delayed gratification.  I can take responsibility for my thinking and actions and ask God to remove those elements that stand in the way of me being effective, useful, and loving in my life.  Sometimes, I have to console that little kid–hold her in my arms and say, “Darlin, I get it, but you need not worry, I got you and God’s got you.”  Then I breathe and ask for the courage to face the day as a responsible adult with hope.  My prayer for you today is that you recognize where your three-year old is showing up and introduce him or her to God.  I have a feeling she or he has been dying to meet the Creator (besides she/he wants to know who is in charge cuz she/he has got some questions).  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The laws of physics (i.e.-gravity) are easy to obey.  We cannot get around them.  If I hold something up in the air and let go of it, it will drop. Plain and simple.  There is no arguing, there is no wishing it won’t happen.  I simply know as I am sure you do, that I cannot change it.  I trust that there is a reason for it and that it serves a purpose. That particular law makes it possible for my feet to touch and walk the ground.  If I want to walk without touching the ground, I either go into space or a swimming pool.  There are other laws of physics that I am not as versed in, but I am pretty certain I do not fight those either. I have come to see there are spiritual laws as well.  Those are the laws that create peace in my heart, breath in my well-being and love in my reality.  Deepak Chopra has written a book on the spiritual laws of success, Don Miguel Ruiz wrote a book called the Four Agreements, the Hebrew book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s law of people and the ten commandments.  All around us are laws that speak to our spirit and our heart.  When I turn a blind eye to them I find no peace.  I am definitely not an expert in  spiritual law but I can speak to my own experience of following such direction and of not following it.  I know that when I practice forgiveness and acceptance my mind and my heart flow in rhythm and life is filled with hope.  When I give my full attention to the moment, I am connected and grateful and recognize that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.  When I let go of the idea that things are not the way they are “supposed” to be and accept that they are and there is something I can learn from, I find myself smiling a little more.  The spiritual laws are those that govern our heart and our spirit.  The laws that create peace amongst our fellows, and help us to live in hope free from anger and resentment.  My fighting of those laws (in whatever language or style I understand them) is no more fruitful than when I fight gravity.  What are the spiritual laws in your life that you are fighting?  What would it take to let them go for today?  My prayer for you today is that you ask God to show you one spiritual law happening in your life that you can practice to bring you peace.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

As a young person you hear a lot about having direction in your life.  I remember when I was entering college and in my first couple of years the emphasis on having a major or deciding a career path.  There was a lot of perceived pressure to have it all figured out.  As if I had any idea the twists and turns that my life would take.  I switched my majors a couple of times and in the end the degrees I received were not of a specific career field.  I ended up teaching those subjects in middle and high school but did not start out with a degree in education.  I made the decision to get a degree in History and Religious Studies with the intention of going back to get my teaching certificate (which I did) after I spent a year doing service as a teacher in an inner city.  I figured I would know then if it is what I really wanted to do.  The funny thing when I think about it is that I did go on to get my master’s degree in education while working as a full-time teacher and I completed it the year that I left teaching.  LOL! Funny how life works.  I remember feeling sorry for the students in college who were “undecided”–what a horrible label.  As if they were wandering around aimlessly with no direction.  Eventually we all had to declare a major.  I just went with what interested me and what I seemed to soak up.  We were all on the journey whether we had picked a major or not.  There is no skipping out on that.  If you are alive you are on the journey.  I think the point of direction is that you are willing to take a chance on listening to your heart.  Listening to an inner-guidance (God) that nudges you in a particular direction.  The journey is the experience.  If my college years were only to be measured by the actual degree then in retrospect those 4 1/2 years would have seemed fruitless.  Having the major simply determined whose path I crossed more often, perhaps some of the discussions I engaged in, things I was required to read, etc.  In the end however, it was me who showed up to those things (well, showed up most of the time ;)).  I put forth my time and energy to earn the degree but if I had made it all about the end result, I never would have gotten there.  It meant showing up each day and renewing my committment to the particular path I had chosen.  That is how we live our lives today.  I do my best to seek direction in my life from God within my heart.  I measure my actions by things that either draw me closer to that or further away from that.  That impetus is what drives me to show up each day imperfectly and do the best that I can.  I am grateful for the opportunity to be connected because there was a time in my life when I felt very lost and I showed up each day but with little hope or sense of purpose.  What directs your life?  How do you know you are moving in that direction?  My prayer for you today is that you have an opportunity to connect with your heart (God) and hear the direction you are being called to.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The beauty of a relationship with an all-knowing being is that there is nothing to hide.  At first that can be frightening but in the end it is freeing.  The beauty of it is that God calls me to be honest with myself and rejoices when I come to a candid understanding and awareness of myself.  Then I can begin to move forward. Despite the fear of judgment–which comes from my own mind and my perception of other people–it does not come from God.  God’s judgment seems to be in reality.  Meaning that when I face the consequences of my actions–in this case of being untruthful, that is the judgment.  It doesn’t come with a whipping or “I told you so.”  Rather it is a natural consequence of living inauthentically.  Another way of understanding this would be living out of integrity with myself.  As I grow in my relationship with Christ, with God, with the Great Creator I find that there is little room to lie to myself.  Perhaps it is the safety of knowing that I am loved no matter my faults.  God is the ever-forgiving father who rejoices when I come to a place of acknowledgment of my humility.  When I get honest with who I am and what I am doing.  When I face myself candidly, God is there beaming with excitement.  God knows that it is from there that my life can begin to grow and flourish.  This illusion that if everything looks good not only disrespects God, but a difficult act to keep up without needing something to numb the pain.  In my limited time on this earth, I have found that the more candid I am with myself, with God and with others, the more freedom, humility, and forgiveness I experience.  It is then that I can be candid with myself–acknowledge my limitations and not see them as some sort of deficit but simply the make-up of my uniqueness.  If I was able to be and do everything I would not need God, I would not need others–sounds pretty lonely to me.  Don’t get me wrong, self-sufficiency is important, but it will only take me so far.  I figure if I was meant to do it all on my own, there would not be so many other people around.  My heart grows ever-stronger with each moment that I live in reality. Reality being that there is a God and I am not here alone.  Reality is the necessity of both of those relationships for my own growth.  My prayer for you today is that you have an opportunity to be candid with yourself about one small area of your life and have the courage to bring it to God so that you may experience that love that He has for that part of who you are.  It does not matter what it is about you, God loves you, all of you.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

I am often puzzled and grateful at the same time that the standards of God are not the same as the standards of man.  God seems to have a much more generous measuring stick (if one would even call it that) or perspective (better word) than any that I have come across by a human.  As humans we judge situations, people, etc. by our previous experiences and knowledge.  It makes sense, we have nothing else to go off of.  The difficulty is that there is so much that lies outside of our own individual or even collective experience.  So much we don’t know that we don’t know.  So while it is helpful to bring perspective to things, our minds our limited.  Our hearts, however are not.  Our spirits are not.  But when our minds try to wrap themselves around our hearts and spirits sometimes the wiring begins to short-circuit–there can be a disconnect.  Yet day in and day out, I measure my success by the world.  I long to be accepted in a traditional way.  I look to that to tell me that I am okay.  That is good as far as it goes, but it won’t go far enough.  God created me with a mind, a heart and a spirit and a body that carries all of those.  This is how the beauty of rejection can be experienced in our lives.  When we are rejected by another or a situation especially if by all accounts it “should” not have happened, we are driven to our hearts and our spirits for an answer.  Based on what happened, we don’t measure up, we aren’t included, we are told to go elsewhere.  These can be painful experiences, especially when they happen close to home.  It is these very experiences that encourage us to look elsewhere for a sense of belonging, inclusion, measurement so that we can find where we truly belong.  In the realm of the spirit there is a place for everyone and every experience.  There are no mistakes or only having one shot because all are lessons.  These lessons are designed to encourage our growth in God.  We can be an example to each other of triumph when we move through an experience of rejection.  We are motivated by these stories that we see and hear of someone’s spirit overcoming their physical or mental or emotional experience. It is happening every day and it is happening to you. Think of a time when you were rejected, what got you through? I am not saying it is easy and that it doesn’t hurt, it does.  But each time I have experienced rejection on some level it first calls me to return to the bosom and comfort of God and to ask, “what can I learn from this?”  I could choose to close my heart and I did for many years but that just turned me into one who rejects and has a hardened heart–an ultimately painful way to live.  Instead, for today, I choose to see what can be learned, to see what my heart and my spirit is calling me to.  Will you join me today?  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

When things do not meet my expectations I can often think that all is lost.  I forget that the way that God is not limited by my mind’s possibilities and can present things in much more dynamic way.  Recently I have begun to think that when things don’t work out or go the way I planned it is actually a good thing because it means that God has something even greater in store than I could have imagined.  I can make it mean anything I want right?  Why not something positive.  I look at the little as well as the big things.  If I am stuck in traffic and it is taking longer to get somewhere than I planned, I am trusting that I will show up at exactly the right time and perhaps cross someone’s path that I would not have crossed otherwise.  This means I need to be paying attention.  Don’t get me wrong, this does not mean that I get to escape my part of doing what I need to do to arrive to my destination on time, but I don’t have to stress when it is not going the way that I had hoped.  Recently I have been dealing with an ongoing health issue and it is not enfolding the way I would like (i.e.–I have these symptoms which means I have this condition and here is the treatment.)  I have seen more doctors scratch their head in the last month or so than in my whole life. So I just keep showing up, taking care of myself the best that I can, listen and observe my body, get plenty of rest, ride the waves of up and down, seek both traditional and non-traditional remedies, and most importantly keep turning to God to see what I can learn from this on all levels–physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.  I am grateful that my symptoms are not grave and I can still show up for my life.  I am also grateful that all my tests keep coming up normal.  All of this has required me to slow down and pay close attention to the instrument that God has given me to inhabit.  As someone who spent most of her life carrying and pushing her body around like a spare tire, I have awakened to an entirely new respect for the temple that I inhabit.  I am grateful for the ways that I shifted how I treat myself over 10 years ago–(how I eat and exercise, what thoughts I let roam free in my head, etc.)  I think I am being beckoned to another level of connection with my own body, with God. More than anything I am aware that I am stronger and healthier than I realize–such a gift given how I treated my body for so many years.  My mind might take a while to catch up, but observing is the first step.  My prayer for you today is in whatever you are facing and things are not working out the way you planned–have the courage to stop and observe and just wonder what God might have in store for you at that moment.  What gift could he want to be giving you?  I like getting gifts, don’t you?  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

As a kid growing up in Catholic school, I have a distinct memory about learning to be courteous.  It was about thinking of someone else before ourselves in simple ways.  Offering to let someone go in front of you, sharing with others, etc.  They correlated it to the parable that Jesus told about when someone asks you for a shirt, to give him your coat as well or when someone asks you to walk a mile with them, walk two.  I took this very literally as a kid and when another student would ask me for a piece of paper I would give them several.  LOL!  If only all of life were that simple.  I did this however more out of a sense of rule following then coming from a heart place of giving.  I think I hoped it made me look good in God’s eyes.  What I didn’t realize at the time was that I already looked good in God’s eyes.  God created me and saw that it was good and was pleased.  God’s love is not something I have to earn.  For today, the way that I understand courtesy and generosity of spirit now comes from a place love and service because it is an extension of who I am.  If I am rooted in God, then I give as God gives.  I do not fear that my giving will take away from me because I am connected to the One that is All.  I am not courteous so that I can check it off some sort of good girl list.  I am courteous because I am taken care of and do not need to be preoccupied about myself.  Sometimes if I find that I am self-focused, I take courteous actions towards others to remind me that I have nothing to fear.  My experience that self-focus comes from fear.  So if faith is the opposite of fear then being of service (courteousness) is an act of faith.  What is your experience of courteousness?  My prayer for you today is to notice when you do not want to be courteous.  Just notice it (we all have moments of it) and ask yourself, is it because I am in fear (two basic fears–losing something I have or not getting something I want)?  If so, then ask God to remind you that you are taken care of and do the courteous thing anyway.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

It is no surprise that children are so inventive and creative.  It is also no surprise that we are drawn to people who are full of ideas and possibilities.  It is the essence of who we are at our core.  We were created, we are creative.  This is not a one-size-fits-all life experience.  If we choose to participate in the flow of life then we are called to be creative, to go with the ebb and flow.  Did you ever notice the power that comes from witnessing someone’s creativity?  A beautiful piece of art or architecture, watching someone dance or sing or a film.  Heck I feel the power of creativity when I am in a meeting and people are brainstorming–just throwing ideas out there to be sorted later.  Life can be very prescriptive and formulaic and we can cling to the things that we “know” are going to happen.  The irony of course is that there is so much we don’t know, so why not be creative about it.  Our minds are magical and imaginary and inventive.  When I think of some of the ridiculous meanings that my mind makes out of a simple situation, I cannot deny its creativity. The key is to channel it in a productive and positive way.  The only way I know how to do that is to be plugged into God.  Otherwise the movies of my mind would more often than not be horror stories. I have never been a big horror flick fan and I don’t discount it, they just have no place roaming in my mind rent free.  I need to turn my creative ideas and hold them up to the light.  Who better to measure my creative ideas than the Ultimate Creator.  I believe the reason are so free with their creativity is because of their proximity towards God.  Quite simply, they have spent less time being worn and tattered by the “real” world.  I can look to them as an example of how free God wants us to be.  I remember as a kid in the shopping mall just braking into dance when I saw the different kinds of floors that I could dance.  I didn’t care in the least who was watching.  What happened to that?  Honestly, it doesn’t matter because energy is neither created nor destroyed–nothing happened to it.  I just buried it somewhere, it is still within me.  I challenge you today to connect to your creativity (God) and do one thing that makes you smile.  If all we have is today, why not have at least one moment when we are in touch with our own essence.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen