dailydatewithgod

The Creator of All has not only created us but gifted us with the same desire to create.  Do you remember as a kid how you loved to make things up?  You ask a group of children to make up a story and they jump on it.  They bring in characters and ideas seemingly out of nowhere.  They make connections and reasons for why certain things happen that are sometimes beyond a rational understanding and tell the story as though it were true.  As adults we think we lose touch with that part of ourselves. Have we really lost touch with it or do we keep it hidden?  What about the stories that we create about what things mean?  What about our imaginative ideas about why other people are behaving the way they are?  They also come from our imagination.  Then we throw in some commonly held beliefs, modify our stories to meet with the agreement of others, and see it as truth and not imagination.  The real truth is we do not know why people behave the way they do or what things always mean because there are always multiple factors occurring simultaneously.  We cannot  know all the reasons, so wet fill in the blanks with our imagination. Perhaps God has some life-giving options for our ingenuity if we are willing to involve God in the process.

My prayer for us is the acknowledgement of the beautiful gift of creation given to us by God and the humility in asking God to be involved the true ingenuity possible today.

If were to believe that God has gifted you with a creative imagination in a way that brought excitement and joy into life, how might you ask God to show you the possibilities inherent in your true ingenuity to create today?  Share in the comments.

The grandeur of God is something that we can connect to and be drawn into.  We are constantly being invited by God to embrace the love that is within our hearts. God knows it is there because it has been the seat of love for all creation.  Our design has the imprint of our creator and it is written on our hearts.  The idea that God is “up there” somewhere or at some height that we cannot reach is simply not true.  Why would God create us, place within our hearts the love of all we are, design us with a desire to connect with God and then be unreachable.  The height have to stretch to reach is that which tells us that God is simply “up there”.  The reaching for that height is an illusion.  We do not have to climb some allegorical mountain to prove that we have a right to exist. God is not outside of us.  God is in the midst of us in the constant rhythm of our being.

My prayer for us in the remembrance of God’s presence in our very being so that we do not have to climb to some illusionary height attempting to prove the worthiness of our existence today.

If you believed that God was within your own heart, accessible any time you tuned into the rhythm of your being, what height would you be able to  achieve in your being without striving today?  Share in the comments.

The love of God reaches places within us that we are not even aware of.  The depth of love that is in us calls to us quietly.  To hear the call we must gently step back from all the clamoring of the world and of our minds. I love to understand things.  It makes my brain happy to know something.  There is a sense of security that comes from knowing or is there?  One of the quintessential elements of God is mystery.  It is what keeps us engaged.  It is what engenders awe.  Mystery creates space for humility.  The mystery is not the existence of God, the mystery is how God will be revealed in the present moment.  Just because I show up in the same space and time every morning for our date, does not mean there is no mystery.  Quite the opposite.  I never know what God will press upon my heart, whisper in my ear, or what idea might be come out of my head.  I don’t know what will catch my breath, touch my heart, or cause me to not want to get up and get on with the rest of my day.  It is not a mystery that God will show up.  If I am breathing, I know God will be there.  For me, there is no where I have not found God, only places I might hope God will not be present because I am hiding.  Each date, however, God encourages me to reveal myself and extends a love that makes no sense to me.

My prayer for us is a willingness to embrace the mystery of how God will show up and remind us of the love that is within us.

If you knew you could rely on God being present wherever you are, what kind of mystery would you want to solve to unwrap the love in your heart today?  Share in the comments.

We open our eyes to a whole new world when we ask God to help see as God sees.  We awaken our hearts to the truest sense of reality when we ask God to align our thinking with God’s thinking.  We enliven our spirits when we surrender to the love that God has for us and recognize it as being with us at all times when we are willing to return to it.  I know that when I am walking through a difficult emotional experience, physical pain, or find my default mode as one of irritation, it is hard to remember the truth of who I am or anyone else for that matter.  I cannot by my own will make room for the sight of love because my perception is clouded by the outer appearance of things not being what I want them to be.  I need God’s help.  When I become attached to the form I forget that which created it.  When I become mesmerized by what I believe I will feel as a result of obtaining a certain outcome or having a certain thing, I forget to enjoy the journey.  I not so sure it is about not becoming attached or mesmerized or if that is possible, but rather about noticing when it happens and utilizing it as the opportunity to return to center.  I believe life is about learning and if humility is being teachable, then sometimes the most opportune time to learn is when I’ve gone somewhere my heart does not truly want to go.  When I wake up to the incompleteness of the form that I worked so hard to obtain, I am willing to take up God’s opportunity to learn a different way.

My prayer for us is a willingness to learn from all that happens in our lives and see those happenings as opportunities to be reminded to return to God today.

If we are given limitless opportunities to return to love, how might you like God to gently guide you back to your heart today?  Share in the comments.

God’s vision is beyond our understanding. Our vision is limited. Sometimes the most powerful prayer for me is, “God help me to see this as you see this.”  And in God’s fashion sometimes that happens automatically, other times it happens slowly over time.  My sight will sometimes shift so slowly that I don’t realize the shift has happened.  Then someone asks me a question that I have been asked a million times before and out of my mouth comes a completely different answer.  I find myself saying and doing things that seemed to baffle me before.  I am not bothered by a situation or afraid of something that I was sure would harm me.  It is as though God has changed my eyes.  There is a sense of peace in who I am being that was never there before.  I find myself feeling as though life really does happen for me, not to me.  This sight of life is the biggest gift of my dates with God.  I realized after a time that if I wanted to see more of how God saw me and the world around me, spending dedicated time with God as well as listening and learning from others who have done the same needed to take a priority in my life.  I do not understand God’s perspective nor do I think I ever will but as far as I am concerned as long as God is, I want to be a part of that vision.  It makes no sense that coming to a place of forgiveness for my father’s incestual actions is what has taught me to love.  It sounds ridiculous that I had to get to a place of killing my body with food and blow up to over 300 plus pounds to recognize the beauty and the sacredness of the vessel through which God has called me to live out this life. It does not matter that my mind could not envision either of those outcomes, God’s vision is greater.  It is God’s vision that has brought me to a place of peace that I did not experience until I asked to see it as God does.  Yet each time I reach another level of reconciliation of a different layer of either of these factors in my life I am right back to thinking it can’t be done.  So I come to God on our date, tell him so, and ask to see it differently.  And so, like C.S. Lewis said, “Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”

My prayer for us is the courage to admit that God’s sight is greater than ours in situations big and small and all that we need is the willingness to ask to be lent His sight for today.

If you could have God’s sight on a source of grief or strife in your life, who might you be free to be today? Share in the comments.

 When we embark on the pathway of love by accepting our breath at the start of the day we are saying yes to life.  We are receiving the gift of the spirit to move through us and set us on the path.  The passageway that we embark upon is one filled with mystery, expectation, uncertainty, possibility, and learning.  If we want to pass through life to reach a place of peace and love we must be that on the passage of peace.  We cannot get there expecting ourselves to be something we have not become.  The destination is not about getting somewhere but realizing who we have become along the way. The passage through our lives are the stepping stones in a way of being.  We can choose which path to travel as we set out on our day.  If we veer off course we need not fear but use our breath to reunite us with spirit and get back on the path we want to be on.  I want to be on the path of peace not because it is the right thing to do but because when I am on it my passage I breathe easier, my heart is lighter, love seems real, and I am not looking behind me to see what I missed.

My prayer for us is as we start our day we use our breath to choose which passage to travel upon this day with open eyes and hearts so that we may experience ourselves as we truly are.

If whatever passage you chose there was an opportunity to get on one that showed you the love that you are, how many breaths would it take you to choose it for yourself today?  Share in the comments.

As we choose to focus our attention on growing each day in the knowledge and understanding love, we find ourselves many time in a day at a crossroads.  Our commitment to grow into the vision that God holds of us and knows of us to be true at any given moment is ours to resolve to live or not.  The beauty of this process of returning to the love that we are is that the stretch is not nearly as far and as hard as we perceive.  Part of the resolution to live as we are designed is to recognize that the biggest stretch is in the reality of our minds.  It is our perception that we are separate from God and therefore somehow different from God that makes us think it will take an act of God to get us to be in alignment with the truth of who we are.  My resolution for this day is  simply a request of God to help me see myself and others as God sees them.  Grant me the willingness to let go of my ideas of people, places, and things and be open to the truth of love that is taking place at every moment I resolve to see it.

My prayer for us is the resolution to ask for God’s help to make the step which seems like a leap into the acceptance of the truth of love that is already residing right before our eyes today.

If God is resolved to know and experience us as the love that we truly are, how might resolving to adopt God’s perspective in this day change your next few moments?  Share in the comments.

In the midst of our minds there is a capability to be with whatever we are experiencing.  It is called having the observer’s mind.  It is a technique that is cultivated in meditation.  Our minds are constantly going and our thoughts come one right after another.  We then attach to particular ones like picking them up off of a conveyor belt on an assembly line and inspecting it.  Our attachment to a particular thought and giving it further meaning creates our experience.  Meanwhile we stop being present in the moment and don’t notice the other thoughts that go through our mind.  We are too busy collecting other thoughts that support the one we picked up.  On my dates with God I have been shown the power of stopping and observing which thoughts I pick off the conveyor belt and decide if focusing on them brings me closer to love or if I want to pick another one.

My prayer for us is the recognition that we can choose at any point to observe our thoughts and our lives in any moment of this day.

If you were given the option to observe your growing toward or away from love which thoughts would you pick off the conveyor belt to focus on today?  Share in the comments.

God is the choice. God is the answer.  We face all kinds of problems or challenges each day. Each one comes at us at varying degrees and speeds. If the choice has a lot of varying outcomes we can become paralyzed by focusing on the outcome instead of the process of making the decision.  We might play through in our minds all the possible what ifs and if you are anything like me sometimes drive yourself crazy doing so.  It is then that I ask for God’s hand to be placed on my heart and slow the speed of my racing mind.  I have learned that the more I stay in my head without connecting my heart, the harder it will be to come to an answer.  This practice over and over again creates a way of being that reminds me to always connect to my heart.  It is a simple acknowledgment of where God resides at my deepest core and my desire to have my answers come from that place.

My prayer for us today when we get frazzled by needing to make a decision is a willingness to stop and embrace the process of remembering to connect with our hearts.

If you wanted to remember to return to your heart for your truth, what kind of reminder would you ask of God today?  Share in the comments.

God’s gentleness is something to be cherished.  It is the still small quiet voice that nudges us amidst the chaos of the world to pause and breathe. God wants us to be present to the respiration of our physical bodies and the inspiration of our spiritual reality.  God wants for us to know the love that we are with every breath we take.  This is why breathing is a constant happening in our lives, more so than any other function in our bodies.  We may not pay attention to how often we breathe in and out but it is constant all day and night long.  It mirrors the constancy of God.  We need to take those breaths to keep living just as we need God to keep living. We can choose to be aware of our breath as many times as we wish in the same way we can choose to be aware of our connection to Spirit.

My prayer for us is the recognition that within our physical system is the mirror of the constancy of God who wants to reside in our hearts and that we can be present to it as many times as we wish to be inspired.

If you knew in your heart that with each breath you were connecting with spirit and it was God’s way of constantly requesting to be in your heart how many times today would you want to be present to your re-spiriting?  Share in the comments.