dailydatewithgod

Sharing my experiences and understandings of the Great I AM.

Jan 23

Be Of Protection!

by Colleen
God creates space for us to lean in.  It is a welcomed gesture from someone like me who has often veered towards pushing away.  When I find myself under stress and uncomfortable, I often feel like the world is closing in on me and I want to push back.  I want to shut people out and go into my little cocoon.  Until my dates with God it never occurred to me that I might be pushing away God’s arms of comfort.  What looked like an effort to make sure I was protected ended up being the very thing that kept the ultimate protection from reaching me.  God gestures for me to come closer when I want to put up my walls to protect me from what I perceive as a hostile world.  God quietly tugs at my heart and says I AM here.  I AM with you.  I AM within you.  God is calling on me to perceive my reality differently.  God’s protection which is about residing and taking comfort in the love of all that is, is what nurtures and restores my heart.  God’s protection is what allows me to gently move from the thinking of the world and all around me as hostile and the restoration of my own heart to the reality of love.
My prayer for us is the courage to draw into God’s protection which will create the restoration of love in our hearts that we are seeking when we want to push back today.
If God was offering the protection of your heart by reminding you of the love that resides in it, how would you like to be protected by God today?  Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Jan 22

Be Of Difference!

by Colleen
 God is love therefore God only sees love.  I am sure God gets a kick out of how much time we spend looking for love in all the wrong places.  Recognizing that it resides within our hearts where God began our creation is both freeing and baffling.  It is freeing to our spirit and baffling to our mind.  It calls upon us to see things differently.  We can easily focus on the difference that we see physically around us.  We have no problem recognizing the separation between ourselves and others.  Courage is what gives us the willingness to see the difference in our thinking from God’s.  When we identify the limits that our mind places on our perspective and choose to be opened to the possibilities that are present in love, we begin to see the difference.
My prayer for us is the courage to ask God to see the difference between our thinking from God’s thinking today.
  If you realized that you wanted the difference in God’s thinking to be ever-present in your life today, how would you ask God for help?  Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Jan 21

Be Of Stretching!

by Colleen
God is boundless.  The far reaches of the universe cannot begin to encompass all that God is.  When we remember that from which we were created we recognize that the love that resides within us is also boundless.  We need not concern ourselves with boundaries because love is the boundary.  It has us from all sides.  There is no where we can go real or imagined that love is not already present. Our mind wants us to think that we need to protect ourselves from the unknown because we do not know what dangers are lurking there.  Our heart knows that the only thing lurking is the possibility of love’s expression.  When we are willing to stretch our thinking past its own understanding, we can embrace the love that we are.  When we remember to turn to God and ask to see our lives and the lives of others through the lens of love that is the truth of who we all are, our hearts stretch to their capacity and love comes alive.  I know that when I am focused in my head on what is wrong in any situation or what someone else is doing that is wrong or bad, I close off my heart.  When I am in fear that I will not be okay or I must protect myself, my heart grows small, my breathing becomes tight, and I am restricted in mind and body.  The stretching comes when I humbly reach for God’s hand and open my mind to ask God to help me to see the situation or person as God sees them.
My prayer for us is the trust to know that God can help us to stretch our hearts and experience the love that is present in this moment despite all evidence to contrary.
If you knew in your heart that whatever was in front of you would allow you to grow more in love, how would you ask God to stretch your mind and heart today?  Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Jan 20

Be of Flowering!

by Colleen
I think flowers are beautiful.  They are a delight to the eyes, often soft to the touch, and tantalizing to the nose.  Their variety is endless and we as humans place so much meaning on them.  Some are used for medicinal purposes and even edible.  They open up as they grow to maturity and their vulnerability of beauty is made evident gradually over time.  As most things in nature, I have learned to ask what is God trying to show me through its presence in the world.  The ease through which they seem to trust the ground or tree from which they grow is inspiring.  The fact that they so freely offer their gifts of pollen by remaining open and when the bees come and partake of their nectar they do not shut down but seem to convey this inner confidence of beauty and purpose.  Most of all, I have never come across a flower growing in nature or anywhere and wondered why it looked so out of place. The color, shape, variety of patterns and way they grow is boundless. They seem to bloom and grow exactly where they are supposed to adding beauty to wherever they are.
My prayer for us is to embrace our own flowering giving ourselves permission to own the color, shape, variety, and gift that we have when we open up to the world.
If you knew that God would see to it that your variety of flowering on the world was cherished and valued, what might you share with the world today?  Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Jan 19

Be Of Dignity!

by Colleen

God stands tall within our hearts.  Upon our creation, God made this mark of love on our very souls.  We cannot keep it from living inside of us.  When we begin to recognize it and align with it, we find a dignity that exists within us that we never knew.  As we claim our birthright as children of God we too stand tall in alignment with our hearts.  We realize that nothing outside of us, no experience, no person, and no idea can separate us from our Creator.  There is a fascination with which we entertain life when we realize that we cannot undo our very nature.  We may have done a lot to step away from it, deny it, or make it not so, but we are not more powerful that the Being that called us into being.  I know that when I lived my life ruled by old ideas and circumstances I was afraid and saw most things through the eyes of what I was doing wrong.  When I was done with that story and willing to let go of my old ideas of who I was and ask God whom I was in God’s eyes, my life changed.  God taught me on our dates that if I remember to take his hand and turn to his vision of who I am, I will recognize an inherent dignity that cannot be denied.  It will run through every thread of my life and I no longer need to live in such fear and condemnation.  Step by step, day by day, I began to see the truth of this and it is amazing.  I still forget sometimes and behave in a manner that is less than dignified, but all I have to do is recognize that it is happening, ask God for a course correction and choose a different path in my next breath.

My prayer for us is an opening to see that God does not create anything that God is not continually a part of, therefore we all have within us the dignity of love that can transform anything.
If you knew inherently that God’s dignity was in your own heart, what might you do today to spend time with your heart and claim that dignity?  Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Jan 18

Be Of Longing!

by Colleen
There is a call of our spirit that echoes in the chambers of our heart.  It is a subtle vibration that we barely notice unless we are tuned in closely.  It is the element of our creation that keeps us uniquely linked to Our Creator.  It is the wave of energy that within us longs to be connected to the Great All That Is.  We attempt to fill the longing with things outside of ourselves, ideas, practices, feelings, and even prayers.  But sometimes the only thing that will satisfy this longing is to just BE in the presences of Our Creator.  Be without any fixed idea of how God will show up.  Be without any list of things that we need to do in order to be worthy.  Be without any set words or expression to show our desire to connect.  A breath in and out in the stillness of our being.  An opening of our eyes to the beauty of being alive.  We get glimpses and flashes of it when we are fully present in the moment.  We feel it when we witness the expression of creation in form like a blooming flower, the sound of genuine laughter, an exquisite performance on the sports field or in the music hall, or a tear of release running down our cheek.  Whatever it is, it does not seem to stay.  Our hearts and spirits are moved and we long for more.  It is these delicate realities of gifts of being alive that I feel privileged to be present to when I choose to just BE.  The only thing I can attribute this awareness to is my willingness to show up on our daily date, no matter what, each morning.  It is the very longing to deeply connect that keeps me coming back and being willing to BE.
My prayer for us is the courage to notice the times and experiences that play the strings of our heart at its frequency of joy and hush our sense of longing for a moment today.
If you knew that God would show you the way to experience the present moment that quiets your internal longing, how would you ask God to show you this gift today? Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Jan 17

Be Of Attendance!

by Colleen
God is the Great Dancer!  God is the one who designed the footwork pattern of all the dances.  God is the lead in the dance and when we take His hand and step to the music our life flows.  We manage to effortlessly handle twists and turns.  We are able to push in and out of life and still stay connected.  When we try to lead solely on our own we invariably step on each other’s toes.  God wants to dance with us and invites us with each breath to take part in the beauty of the flow.  We often fill our dance card with other suitors (fear, worry, power, living in the past) and have no room for God.  All it takes is one dance and we will notice the distinction of partners.  None of this happens, however, if we don’t attend the dance.  Sometimes we just want to listen to the music.  Sometimes we are afraid we will mess up too much even if we let God lead.  Sometimes it may be scary to let God in that close. Sometimes we are so used to leading that when we try to let go we do so in a bumpy fashion.  But God is not afraid to slow down and let us slowly work up to the more complex steps. God is happy that we decided to attend the dance engage in life today.
My prayer for us is a willingness to attend to our lives and consider the dance we are invited to partake in with God this day.
If God is willing to be your dance partner today, which dance would you want to attend? The Cha Cha, the Fox Trot, Salsa, Rumba ? (So many choices!).  Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Jan 16

Be Of Reverence!

by Colleen
God’s magnificence lives inside of us. All That Is has designed us to be in alignment with the Creator of all creation.  We cannot separate ourselves from God except in our thinking.  We give our thinking such power and thus convince ourselves that it is more real than the reality of who we are.  There is a reason why taking a deep breath gets us in touch with our heart and then our mind.  Have you ever wondered why fresh oxygen goes to the heart first and then travels to the brain and the rest of the body and not the brain first?  Maybe that tells us as much about how we are meant to function as the fact that we have one mouth and two ears.  When we recognize the precious design of nature including how our bodies function we are given a clue as to the thinking of God.  When we step back and look upon all that is present around us and within us with gratitude and reverence recognizing that we are one part of this tremendous gift of life, we are able to realign ourselves with our designer.
My prayer for us is a reverence for all that we are and all that we come from so that we might be willing to align ourselves with God’s thinking instead of our own.
If God has called you to recognize with reverence the natural system that functions within you and around you despite your thinking, what kinds of new thoughts might guide your day?  Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Jan 15

Be Of Reality!

by Colleen

God’s reality is love.  If we are from God then our true reality is also love.  So how do we manage to get out of our true reality?  Some of this comes when we identify only with our physical selves.  When we limit our experience to something that is also limited by space and time, our perspective becomes very small.  God is not bound by space and time.  God is eternal and everlasting.  Love is therefore not bound by space and time.  Love is eternal and everlasting. We often convince ourselves that love does not exist somewhere.  We tell ourselves that love is not possible in a certain situation.  Before we give love a chance to show up in an unexpected way we place our decision of love’s capability.  We limit ourselves by what we know and what we see.  If we have forgotten that we come from love, how can we truly think that we know its limits if there are any? When I experience angst, frustration, disappointment, sadness, and powerlessness I can lose sight that it will pass.  I forget that love always wins in the end. When it gets dark in my world, it is hard to leave my heart window open just enough so that I can see it when day breaks.  During those times my dates with God even feel disconnected and uncertain.  Yet, God is there in full force each day.  I am given yet another breath to be reminded of the presence of the Holy Spirit and it is exactly what I need to keep moving forward.  This action of taking in a new breath and waking up anyway moves me into a space that my head cannot comprehend because it is busy filing me with ideas of limitation.  It is then that I must use my breath for the one thing that I can.  To turn to God and say, Please help me to see the path because I have lost my way.  I know you are the fulfillment of love and all true reality but my reality has grown dark and unsure and I don’t know how to find my way out again.  Then I breathe out.

My prayer for us is the strength to use the breath we are given to share our reality with God when we have lost sight of the true reality in our day.
Are you willing to use your breath to save the moment of your life that you cannot imagine love would want to enter today?  Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Jan 14

Be Of Experimentation!

by Colleen
God encourages learning. When we are open to learning we start with the premise of unknowing.  We are a clean slate on which to place new ideas and understanding.  Open to learning we embrace the process of coming to knowledge.  We are willing to let go of the idea that we should have the answer before we know the question.  Everything we embrace from a space of learning becomes an experiment.  This great experiment called life is about learning what is love, in other words who we truly are.  The experiment calls us to rely upon the Great Teacher for guidance and direction.  The benevolent teacher is not interested in condemning us. The beloved teacher looks to acknowledge and embrace us for being willing to experiment in the first place.  We are noticed for our engagement in life and willingness to be in the process.  As a teacher my favorite times with my students was walking on the path of experimentation of new ideas and understandings.  Seeing the light bulb go off in their heads as they connected with what was happening in the process of learning was inspiring and life-giving.  If I experienced that as a teacher I can only imagine the magnitude at which God experiences that with us.
My prayer for us is the willingness to be in the process of experimentation to see what we can learn about love from the circumstances of our lives today.
If God is the benevolent teacher who is invested in our being present for the process of learning of love for the pure joy of it, what would you be willing to experiment with today?  Share in the comments.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
«Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Blog at WordPress.com.