dailydatewithgod

Sharing my experiences and understandings of the Great I AM.

Be From Reflection!

Have you ever noticed the power of light?  Our eyes are drawn to it.  Whether it is literal turning on of light or the sun peaking through the clouds.  It captures our attention.  It is as though we know within light there is possibility.  What we don’t realize is that we sense creation inherent in light.  Our hearts know this.  We are all energy on at our base level and the energy present in light has the power to give life.  We learned in school about photosynthesis which creates from light.  I child emerges from a dark womb of its mother into the light of the world. Jesus preached that he was the Light of the World.  When we have the opportunity to reflect the light of God burning within us others are drawn to us.  When people shine in their talents and share their energy with us through compassion, our hearts are moved by love.  Love does not grow in the dark.  We keep secrets in the dark.  Healing happens through transparency and bringing things to the light of day.  We are designed to be reflections of the Light of Love.  We have the power to be a beacon of love when we are open to allowing light to transform our hearts.  This means bringing things out of darkness, even the things we are most afraid to let be seen.  When we bring them to light, God can show us how there is capacity of love even in the darkest of spots.  My daily prayer and meditation date is my chance to begin my day with an opening for the light of God’s love so I have a chance to be the reflection of  light as I go through my day.  At the very least, it reminds me that the darkness from which I just emerged did not have the final say.

My prayer for us is the courage to trust that no matter how much darkness we have experienced or think lives in us, God knows the light with in us that we are capable of reflecting to ourselves and others when we invite in love today.
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Be From Together!

There is nothing we can do apart from God.  It would be like trying to operate without our DNA or cell structure.   Our connection to God is inherent to our very being.  Embracing that togetherness is what gives us power.  Have you ever found yourself wondering why there seems to be this twinge of loneliness or emptiness that exists deep inside you?  No matter what you do or how many people you surround yourself with, it is still there.  Sometimes it shows up like a feeling of unworthiness.  We all come from various life circumstances and challenges to walk through.  What kept me from slowing down taking a look at what was really going on inside of me was a fear that I would find I really wasn’t special and I wasn’t worthy.  My worst thoughts of myself would be confirmed.  Sure they told us in church that we were loved by God and at school we were approved upon when we behaved and performed well.  But how could I truly put belief into a God didn’t seem to be present when I felt unsafe at home or awkward in school?  Where was the approval when no one was watching?  On my daily dates with God I see I got a little mixed up.  I was taking on the world’s definition of togetherness, love, approval, and rightness.  In our time together I have the opportunity to go deep within, underneath all the stories and beliefs.  There I discovered a purity of love that has no rhyme or reason.  God loves because that is who God is. It is not about approval or safety or reward.  It is about recognizing the essence of who we are.  We are always together with God because God never leaves despite all the things we might do to run and hide.  God is every present in our lives the moment we want to be aware of our true essence.
My prayer for us is the courage to trust in the truth of us being together with God at our deepest core when we are willing to take a look within today.
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Be From Vision!

Living in a visual world we rely upon what we see with our eyes to tell us what is real and true. But what about people who are blind or vision impaired.  Is there sense of the world any less?  Do they not see what we see?  The reality that we see is actually not a direct imprint of the visuals in front of us.  The moment the images are brought into our mind it goes into meaning making mode.  Which is why eye-witness testimony is so unreliable.  Then there are all the things we do not see that are happening peripherally. The vision of my eyes is one thing.  The vision of my heart is something else.  I desire to have my heart involved in the interpretation of the images I see with my eyes to envision life more fully.  God’s vision is one of the heart.  I have learned on my daily dates that God sees me with a love greater than I am able to take in.  God’s vision of me is a constant presence of love no matter what might be physically occurring in the world.
My prayer for us is the willingness to embrace God’s vision of ourselves which dwells in our hearts and is as close as our breath today.
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Be From Radiation!

The beauty of living from the heart is in the capacity to share.  Our hearts radiate and energy that extends beyond our physical body space.  The Institute of Heart Math has been studying this scientific phenomenon for more than 30 years.  We have the ability to impact the room we are in, the streets we walk on, and the office space we create all from our hearts.  The beginning of being able to use this capability for the benefit of ourselves and others is in the conscious connection to our own hearts.  In my daily prayer and meditation dates with God the heart is the space God invites me into.  Our hearts hold the core of the love from which we were created.  Being willing to sit still long enough and take a look is the power to dare to know God.  Sometimes as in my case there are all kinds of structures and stories on top of the energies of our heart.  God gives us the compassion to take a patient look.  We may run for a long time but the moment we are willing to peak, God is there to guide us.  God already lives there and wants us to be reunited with the beauty that lies underneath all the supposed protection we have placed on our hearts.  God knows we can radiate the purity of love and kindness we are when we become reacquainted with it.  One breath at a time we will connect with the radiation power of love stemming from us and to all around us.

My prayer for us is the courage to walk in the conviction of God in our innate love that radiates deep within us even when we can no longer see it and be willing to spend some time in that space today.
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Be From Messiness!

I am not quite sure what my aversion to random messiness is.  There is perhaps some sort of emotional pull for me about how I felt about myself growing up.  The crazy thing is that by all appearances there was no mess.  I did well and academically and followed the rules.  I dressed appropriately and fit into standard social norms.  My life appeared be on a projection of a normal life.  The only incongruous piece was my weight.  Or so I thought.  The denial I lived in which saved my life was that everything was fine, I was just fat.  Aside from that not being the true story, being fat is just about the worst thing you can be.  It is one of the highest sins in our culture because it is looked upon as something you can just change.  That may be but for someone like me who used food as a drug for my survival, a simple diet was not going to cure me. Carrying extra weight was the mess I chose to protect myself sexually.  It didn’t work but I was under the illusion that it did.  By meeting other expectations I figured there would be no questions to ask. And since my weight was the only outlying factor, no questions were asked because it was simply an issue of eating better.  No one asked me if I felt unsafe.  No one  stopped to look and notice how much pain I was in.  No one saw the fat as anything more than a will power issue.  Growing up in an incestuous home I learned of the multiple layers of denial. We all have some.  The problem for me came when the food addiction route I chose stopped working and I could no longer run from the truth. Having lost and maintained the weight loss for many years, there is still mess in my life as I walk to freedom in this soul wounding area of my life.  It is not an easy road to accept one’s path especially when its messy but at least now I know the mess for what it is instead of something that masks a deeper hidden reality that no one is talking about. Each day I show up on my prayer and meditation dates with God, my mess, and a willingness to grow in love.  I have come to know that God can use anything.  It is my desire to continue to walk through the mess in God’s hands and live to see the lotus bloom from the mud.
My prayer for us is the courage to embrace the messiness of our lives and the vehicle through which we can grow in love today.
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Be From Piercing!

In the Hebrew scriptures God tells Jeremiah that before he was in his mother’s womb, God knew him and formed him.  Before I was a glimmer in my parent’s eyes, my heart not yet formed had been pierced by the love of the Creator.  God found a vehicle through which to make love manifest in me and in you.  God’s mission is love and so we are brought into reality to share in that mystery of love.  This has been decided before we even take shape.  We are called to pierce the reality of life with this same love.  Just by showing up we are the message of love which is even deeper than our core essence.  When I set out on my daily prayer and meditation date with God it is my intention to be brought back to a place of remembrance of this truth.  It is the piercing of my own heart that needs to happen if I am going to have any hope of being what I am ultimately called to be.  It doesn’t take much for other elements to get piled on top of my heart to the point of needing a piercing followed by an infusion of God’s presence.  Thankfully we all are not in this same space at the same time.  We are surrounded by living and walking embodiments of being pierced alive by the power of love through each other.  In any given moment I am the one who demonstrates the visibility of the love and power of God or the one who needs it from you.  No wonder we are surprised by the power of love.  When we need it the most it might feel almost invasive and heart breaking instead of heart building.  It is only the layers (ideas, beliefs, misunderstandings, false protections) that we placed on top of our hearts that hurt when pierced.  At our core the piercing feels like a life line to the eternal because it is.

My prayer for us is the courage to show up as the piercing presence of love in our lives and be open to when others have the privilege to be that very gift of a piercing of love for us today.
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Be From Available!

The openness that exists in our hearts is a profound sign of the power of love.  Our hearts are the first things to go into lock down when we feel threatened and hurt. Picture a wounded animal crouched over and slumped.  Is it any wonder that the world is full of people who don’t stand up straight or walk with confidence?  It would leave their heart exposed and vulnerable.  It is no mistake that even as a life long dancer I have had to work to consciously carry myself with my shoulders back and open and stand and walk in a confident posture.  On a subconscious level I did not want my heart to be fully available and exposed.  I had been hurt too many times.  As I sit upright in my meditation posture on my date with God I learn to teach my body to be available with an open heart to the love of God.  As that availability grows I learn that I need not be hunched over to protect my heart because God is within and around it at all times.  Being available does not mean exposure, it means a willingness to be love and grow in love one day at a time.
My prayer for us is the willingness to be available to love from within us that God wants to show us in some small way today.
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Be From Glimmerings!

We sparkle from the inside out.  The light within us makes sure of that.  Often times we pile stuff on top of the light and almost cause the spark of light to blow out but it can never be completely snuffed out.  It emanates and originates from something greater than what we are capable of destroying.  When I realized that my light had grown so dim and I began to pray hard. Numbers of desperate pleadings to God not knowing what I was doing.  Years went by before I got any semblance of an answer. I sensed a myself slipping away.  It was hard.   After years of piling on stories of who I thought I was or supposed to be and trying desperately to live them out, I was broken down.  Sometimes it has to get very dark before you start searching for a different source of light or following and unfamiliar glimmer. Looking back on it, I realized I was trying to fuel my life from a fake light. A light that I had come to rely upon other people to kindle. I had let go of the glimmerings of light coming from God through me because they were hidden beneath the  ideas that I no longer questioned.
My prayer for us is the courage to latch on to the glimmerings of light emanating from God through our hearts and trusting it is enough to guide us in the way of light and love for today.
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Be From Before!

We’ve all had those experiences when we realize that if we had taken a minute before we made a decision to consider something else or check with someone, we would have made a different decision. A life lived moving forward is about growing and changing.  Checking in to see where we are starting from is essential in setting up the guidance on what next step to take.  Often it is not what is happening at the moment that is the cause of what we are experiencing good or bad but all the steps that happened before that led up to it.  I see now that in our daily prayer and meditation dates God has called me to engage with All That Is, before I start spinning on the ideas in my own head or take a look at the world around me.  It is a time to connect with my heart, my breath, and the presence of love before I set out on my day.  Many spiritual traditions share the importance of a daily, often morning time, practice such as our dates.  I am consistently reminded of the insight of C.S. Lewis who said,”Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”  God is ready to greet us with love and tenderness each day just as we are that day the moment we say yes by taking in our first breath.  God wants to show us the beauty of our own hearts so we can be grounded in the truth of who we are before anything else occurs.
My prayer for us is to receive God’s invitation to spend some time with God before we engage with ourselves and the world around us today.
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Be From Cultivation!

God is standing ready at all times to contribute to and encourage our growth in love.  We have been designed with love’s growth as our baseline.  When we learn to cultivate an openness to learning about ourselves and the world through the eyes of love all kinds of opportunities open up.  The very act of love’s cultivation expands our hearts, directs the energy of our minds, and allows us to see ourselves as God sees us.  It is not easy to cultivate this when we are closed off and focused on protecting ourselves. When I want to distance myself and do anything but cultivate the seeds of love I reach for God’s hand to lead me back to my heart and my breath.  In the space of breathing presence into my heart I can rest into the heart of God and receive the courage to begin cultivation of love once again. again.
My prayer for us is the courage to try our hand at the cultivation of love in the moments we can only recognize the seedling of love’s call today.
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