dailydatewithgod

I have heard many times that the most powerful prayer is Thank you.  I know my life began to change immeasurably for the better when I learned how to practice gratitude on a daily basis.  It is a leap of faith to be thankful for everything.  It calls upon us to have a trust in the ultimate plan and design of God.  It invites the opportunity for a greater vision beyond this moment all the while being focused on what one is grateful for in this moment.  It is a suspension of what is right and true according to the world and appreciating the delicate nature of life.  In any moment I can be thankful for the breath I am able to take which keeps me alive.  I can notice from that thought that I am grateful to be alive.  From there I can connect to being grateful for what my life looks like today versus 10 years ago.  I am then led into thankfulness for being able to have perspective and the ability to reflect on growth.  Next I find myself grateful that I am able to grow and learn from life.  The snowball element of thankfulness becomes a fuel to open our hearts and be evermore present to the profound simplicity of Thank you being another word for love.

The gift of dating God every day is a sense of impression on my heart.  A connection that grows through learning about the multiple facets of love leaves a mark unlike any other.  If you were to ask me if I was open and willing to experience anger and frustration so my heart and mind would open up more to love, I would pause and want to think about it.  Everything we experience, good or bad, right or wrong, leaves an impression on our hearts.  We can choose whether we want the actual experience to leave its mark or the lessons in love cultivated from it.  We sometimes think we have no choice because we get triggered by the storm or feel the sense of loss so profoundly.  Yet each of the experiences we have God is ready to show us how it can grow us in love if we turn to God for an interpretation.  Left to my own thinking this world sucks and there are a lot of really cruel people.  Who really wants to stick around for that? I might as well go back into denial, check out or allow myself to get swallowed whole into the belief that I am just as bad and dark.  God continues to greet me on our dates with the perception of learning and growing in love.  It’s as though God says, “Yes, Colleen, you have been touched by this experience and it hurts or makes you angry.  I want you to feel it with all that you can and when you are ready, take my hand so I can show you the under side of the impression where the light is hiding. Trust me when I draw your hand to your heart you can choose to take on the impression of the light of love existing within those experiences. ”  So each day I do my best to trust and believe.  God has yet to cease amazing me or catching me by surprise.

I spent a lot of my life working so hard to protect my heart.  I had been hurt and betrayed in the deepest way and since it happened I presumed it would happen again.  It did, not to the same extent, but the heart is fragile and when already bruised it is sensitive.  I figured since it was not guarded by God or anyone else, it was up to me.  The best I could do was to close it off.  As our dates progressed over the years, there was an awareness of an internal shift.  Sometimes it would occur  during our prayer and meditation dates and there were also more spectacular experiences of which I have written about previously. As the change was happening I pictured melting of ice and the release of the iron guard casing around it. Slowly I saw a vibrancy of color and softness hidden and present all along.  God was showing me I didn’t have to guard my heart because there was no guard needed that wasn’t already intrinsic to it.  The very nature of God creating and intricately designing my heart meant it was guarded by the forces of love.  My perception of it being badly wounded was simply the recognition of my heart’s energy of something foreign. As a child, it was the best decision I could make.  Now as an adult I can see that the very sensitive nature of our hearts allows it to pick up on energy of a different frequency.  But recognition does not mean bruising or breaking.  It means noticing.  God has an internal guard on our hearts so we may experience the fullness of love and everything it is touched by without changing its nature.  Our part is to not misperceive what is happening and with courage and strength bring the power of love to all that is and is not.