dailydatewithgod

When I get a message like this, I find that I cock my head to the side like a puppy dog, “huh?”  Be beauty?  The first thing that comes to mind when I think of beauty is the world’s measurement of beauty, you know –People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people all done up in some magazine spread.  Unfortunately my photography session was cancelled for today. 😉  Somehow I think God’s definition of beauty is greater than the world’s.  The first place I look to is in nature. My eyes are drawn to the changing color of leaves this time of year, the roses that bloom with such grace, the way the Christmas lights twinkle around the trees.  How am I supposed to be that?  I think for many many years I avoided being my version of beautiful out of fear of drawing attention.  Because beauty does draw attention.  I can’t help but look at a twinkling star, be stunned by a beautiful desert sunset or smile at the sight of a bouquet of fresh flowers. I most certainly cannot forget my trip to Yosemite five years ago where I walked around with my jaw open most of the time just in sheer shock of the beauty that surrounded me.  I still remember as I left the park that day.  I felt as though I heard God say, “Thank you.”  When I asked for what, I got back “Thank you for coming to see my other beauty.”  Yes, God thinks that I am beautiful because He created me.  Not only that but he is drawn to me.  That causes me to take a breath.  I get unnerved and feel vulnerable when I take in the notion that God is enraptured by me and my beauty.  I am an obsesity survivor which means I spent a large majority of my life trying to be the opposite of what our culture says is beautiful.  But it wasn’t so much my size as my thinking –not wanting to draw attention to myself or hoping I could disappear. However, in all that time, God not once wavered. He saw beauty in me in ways that I did not see it.  So today as I walk through the world “right-sized” for me I notice that the world is a bit more drawn to me but it is my foundation in my relationship with God that allows me to know that my beauty and I don’t just mean physical beauty comes from and is noticed by a power much greater than me.  So what does it mean to be beauty-it means to show up, be my best self today, take care of the flowers in my garden (so to speak) and notice the beauty of those around me.  Lastly, when I see that beauty–whether in some flowers on my walking path or the smile of a co-worker, say-Thank you.  Thank you for showing up today. So, how can you be beauty today?  How might you see beauty today?  I think it goes without saying that I wish you a beautiful day–make it a great one. Peace~Colleen

So the second attribute given is “Love is kind…” and whether it is the sake of continuity or just God’s way of reminding me to be loving again today, here is the focus.  I do think of that bumper sticker that so many of us have seen: “Random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.”  For me, I have learned that kindness starts with my thinking.  Of course, nothing matter much unless it is taken into action but my intention is important to pay attention to.  I think what I have learned over the years is kindness towards myself.  I learned early on to be loving and kind to other people–that it is the godly way to live.  However, what I didn’t understand was that it is hard to truly be kind to others if I am busy thinking such unkind things about myself.  Sometimes, though I am so much better, I realize that I would never talk to someone else the way I talk to myself.  Somehow I don’t think that God looks at me and sees all that is not being done, and all that doesn’t measure up and all that needs to be fixed. Why would he?  He created me and is well pleased.  Why then, do I think I know better than God and am not pleased?  Good question for me.  So how does this all relate to kindness?  I find that I have to start by asking God, how can I be kind in thought and deed towards myself.  Help me to acknowledge what You see in me.  Once those become the eyes through which I see myself they will directly correlate to how I see the world and those about me.  Kindness for me then is about what I am focusing on.  I have this beautiful mind that is often like a metal detector for negative thoughts–searching the sands of life for what is wrong here.  That is part of why I have these daily dates with God because I need to connect with thinking that is kind and gentle and beautiful and I cannot do that on my own.  For today, my task is to focus on kindness, to see how it is created in the world and how it is present in me in thought and deed.  And if my thoughts go elsewhere I can just notice and say hey God–need some help here and as usual–He will be right there.  I wish you many thoughts and as an extension acts of kindness today–both towards yourself and those about you.  Make it a kind day.  Peace~Colleen

Wow, pretty vague statement, huh?  So, I asked, what does that mean?   And immediately what came to mind is Paul’s letter to Corinthians.  “Love is patient, love is kind . ..” and so on.  From my studies of Paul’s letters, apparently the community that he was writing to in Corinth were quite the party people.  I imagine that he was trying to give them some guidelines about how to follow the message of Jesus and he knew that to say be loving would not be enough.  There is actually a lot more in this particular letter but for today I am going to focus on the love part because to be honest, as I said to myself, “Love is patient”, I realized that I can stop there.  Patience–something that takes courage.  It means a waiting, a trusting, a believing that all will turn out as it should, that something greater is at work and the result is not entirely dependent upon me making it happen.  It means breathing and leaving room for others.  I constantly have to practice patience each day, so I guess that is my assignment for today.  How can I be patient with the little moments of life? When I am sitting in traffic, when the person in the grocery line ahead of me is searching for their wallet, when the person at Starbucks doesn’t know what they want (seriously?–it’s the same menu every day, don’t you know I have somewhere more important to be!)  The idea of being love today for me will be to trust that where I am in the moment is exactly where I am supposed to be, that I am exactly who I am supposed to be and there is no where else to be but this moment.  And to be honest, when I remember that I am connected to God because God is a gift of the moment–right here, right now.  I even get to be patient that perhaps this blog isn’t as “perfect” as I would like it to be.  How can you experience love (patience) a.k.a. God today?  I wish you many opportunities to do so, even if for just one moment today.  Peace~Colleen

P.S.–I have to give a shout-out to God for the little gift yesterday.  As I practiced being gentle I had the opportunity to get a little temporary tatoo on my shoulder (I know, totally random, right?–love when God shows up that way) of a butterfly–talk about gentle and beautiful. Thank you for that little gift.

As I think about my approach to life–gentleness is not usually the approach that I take.  One would think that as a woman, you know that whole “soft and gentle” thing it would come more naturally–not so much.  However,as I experience God by looking at the soft clouds or the simple beauty of a flower that is budding or how the smell of evergreen Christmas trees waft over me as I walk past one of those lots–it is all very gentle.  I seem to have a mind that approaches things from a place of “let’s get this done.”–that survival mode.  Not that God doesn’t want to get things done but her/his approach seems to be one of taking a breath and enjoying the  moment and trusting that all that needs to get done will get done, one moment at a time.  It is funny when I think about how this time of year is largely based on the notion that we are preparing for the coming of God and yet we do so by running around like mad people trying to get things done and find the perfect gift and create the picture perfect experience so that everyone around us will know that we are okay.  All the while, God is looking at us and asking us to go into our hearts, to remember that the beautiful organ that pumps blood through our whole body is made up of soft supple tissues that work in rhythm to create life at every given moment.  So as  my “official” date-time with God comes to a close and I embark on my day, I am encouraged to search this day for how gentleness (God) is in my life.  I ask to have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.  Where might you find gentleness today?  It is my hope for you that some of that experience today will be words of gentleness with which you use to speak to yourself and others.  Make it a beautiful day.  Peace~Colleen

I often think of the Sheryl Crow song, “Soak up the Sun” where she says, “It’s not about getting what you want, it’s about wanting what you’ve got.”  Such a simple concept as most are, but simple does not mean easy.  As I embrace each day I make a conscious effort to thank God for the gift of this new day.  On days that I am feeling it, its more like “Yes!  I got another one–thank you God, how can I make this a great one!” So this morning as we spent time on our date, I felt the sense of how can I be grateful today not only for the fact that I have been given the day but grateful for everything in this new day. Yes, everything.  So you can be sure God and I will be continuing our conversation today, because there will invariably be moments when I am not the least bit interested in being grateful for a situation.  But to me that is the beauty of our relationship that I can stop and say “Hey God, remember what you asked of me this morning–I need your help here, I need your eyes and ears because mine are seeing things not so beautifully.”  I hope your day brings you many things to be grateful for and the opportunity to be grateful for something that perhaps yesterday you would have not been.  Make it a beautiful one.  Peace~Colleen

Be open. This is what comes to me on this first day. I have embarked on this road, not sure what will come of it or where it will go , only knowing that I want to share with youare my daily encounters with God. My daily date with God is what I call my meditation time each morning. What else would I call a time set aside to spend with Someone who us more enamored of me than I am? Okay that sounds like more than your typical date, but God is not typical. I took on this meditation time as a daily practice almost 10 years ago, out of desperation and lack of peace in my life. It started with two minutes and grew over time. now I am up to about 25 minutes, plus the time I spend talking with and writing to God (which I have done way longer than 10 years, but more on that later). I am not quite sure how it works, but life is much more beautiful these days.