dailydatewithgod

The Great Creator designed All That Is with love. Love is the signature on all that is present in the world.  Love is the underlying blueprint to everything that exists.  In order to fully receive this life we must be open to love.  To be open to the gifts of this life experience means we are prepared to be blown away by the power and the fullness of love.  I know that I am most open to receiving love when I have let go of anything that blocks it.  Typically this means letting go of my ideas of how it is supposed to show up and what it needs to look like.  When the spontaneity of love presents itself in the form I am not expecting I want an open heart so that I can take it in.  I want God to continue to show up in ways that are beyond my imagination.  If I can always figure out how and why God shows up the way love does, then I am God.  I simply don’t want that kind of responsibility. I much prefer a partnership.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to receiving the spontaneous expressions of love so that God can continue to show us the mystery of life and thus encourage us to be present in this moment.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

As beings of energy that are an extension of the Great Creator our prime resonance an energy wave that we send to the world is that of love.  When we are present in our purest fashion without all the extra layers of thoughts and beliefs about ourselves we are most ready to transmit and share this energy of love with ourselves and one another. The beauty of this design is that we are all gifted in different ways that we are able to convey the energy of love we have within us.  This variation of how love presents itself in the world is what is so fascinating and mysterious.  We are a gift and a contribution to each other in our own unique fashioning of love.  I know for me the only thing that keeps me from being the messenger is when I get caught up in the identity of my roles–daughter, sister, friend, co-worker, woman, etc. When I function from the place of what is expected of me when I am in that role I limit the resonance of my variety of love by what I think it is supposed to be instead of just living it from my heart.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to embrace the variety of love that we are gifted to share with the world beyond the expected role that we are in at the moment.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God always shows up!  God is present at all times.  God is presence at all times.  Life is about showing up and being present in the moment.  When we are able to do that we find ourselves able to do things we would not normally be able to do because we are full present where God is.  Living takes courage.  Loving takes courage.  As humans we are often fearful and anxious and whether it is related to anything specific or not, it does not matter. Our minds tend to bend in that direction.  Scientists would explain that it is our cave man brain that is in this state because during those times, we were never quite sure what was around the corner.  Our very survival depended upon us being able to focus on the possible disasters and threats to our life.  Today we do not face nearly the kind of dangers that we faced then, but parts of our brain still have that inclination.  It is curious also to note that in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, God is often quoted as instructing His people to “Be Not Afraid” and “Do Not Fear”.  God knows that we go to those places and God loves us still the same.  God uses those moments and experiences of fear and anxiety to invite us to choose the courage to live and love.  God does not necessarily make it go away, but encourages us to choose the power of presence anyway.  The valor required to show up despite how we feel or what we think is one of the most powerful actions we can do.  When we choose life and love, despite the thoughts or feelings of otherwise, we are choosing to be with the Eternal.  We are choosing to trust that we are more than our feelings and our thoughts.  We are choosing our birthright of an alignment with God that surpasses our current physical state of being.  My prayer for us today is that we seize upon the times of fear and uncertainty as an access point to practice choosing life and love (God) and witness for ourselves just how powerful the presence of God really is.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

Each new day is an invitation.  An invitation from our Great Creator to live an experience that is more than just the physical one that is readily apparent to us.  We are after all physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual beings.  So much of what we live day-to-day is in the physical and it is what readily demands our attention that it is hard to imagine that it is not the dominant or most important part of us.  As a society we buy into this thinking. We make jokes about emotional well-being. Instead of learning being a priority, we focus on what is already known. We make fun of those “spiritual” things as only necessary for those who are too weak.  I grew up in a household that practiced a particular religious faith and even I have judgments about focusing more on “spiritual” aspects of my being. I also thought that only certain emotions were acceptable and learned to literally stuff the other ones down almost killing myself in the process. The reality is that it is all intertwined and we cannot break ourselves apart into these different elements.  They all effect each other.  The degree to which we experience wholeness and health is the degree to which we accept all these “parts” of ourselves as our being.  God made us whole. We are energetic beings with a tangible physical presence but our emotions and our thinking carry energy as well.  How we understand ourselves as messengers to give and receive love and light (the core of who we are) affects our physical and emotional energy.  God created all of us at once.  It is not as though God waited for the physical to begin to not work as effectively before we were endowed with spiritual or emotional energy.  Our ego thrives on the idea that we are just our physical selves because it needs a body to claim an identity.  There is nothing wrong with this, it just causes some challenges when the ego thinks it is all there is because it is not true.  We cannot deny ourselves (any part of ourselves) and be at peace.  We are out of integrity when we walk around rejecting part of ourselves or even seeing ourselves as parts.  Sometimes when I feel fractured and out of alignment, the best I can do is say: God restore my view to wholeness so that I may see the truth of who I am and who others are and be at peace.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to the peace and integrity of wholly accepting our complete selves.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is inclined toward life.  God is inclined toward the power of love. God is inclined to learning.  When we step into alignment with God, we find ourselves in a world that is not bound by limitations of life, love or learning.  The opportunities to choose to live abound.  The chances to choose love are at every moment and around every corner. The space to learn is all around us and within us. I can be particularly hard on myself.  Thus, I am hard on other people (though I don’t like to admit that my personal mindset creates my mindset and thus everything I see).  This is something that I learned along the way.  God has never scolded me, spoken harshly with me, expressed disappointment, shunned, or betrayed me.  People have, people do, it happens.  Through my dates with God each day I am learning to live in a love that allows me grow into someone who chooses a way of being despite circumstances.  I am no longer a victim of things that happen to me or people who do things “to” me.  I am effected by situation and circumstance, but it does not change my core.  My core that is connected to the Beloved who despite my missteps still thinks I am ripe for spreading the message of love.  The beauty of this is that we are all capable of living in this manner.  God does not single anyone out.  Each misstep is an invitation to either go with our viewpoint of what happened (bad, wrong, idiotic, shameful, should have known better, mistake, etc.) or God’s viewpoint of what happened (in the process of learning, realizing that the laws of nature really are laws, attempting to reconnect with one’s greatest potential for good, wanting to love but not knowing how, suffering from a lack of imagination, etc.)  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to try on God’s inclination of life, love and learning and see if we aren’t able to get just a little bit further than the limited version of what is happening from our heads.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God created the whole of the universe and All That Is from love. Whatever is in existence has love in it somewhere.  Therefore, God is present, love is present, in all things and in all people.  You and I have a connection to all that exists and within that “other” is a part of us.  We are not as separate as we make ourselves out to be. Yes, our outer shells look, speak, act, and live differently, but at our core we are all the same.  We get to choose what we focus on.  Our egos would have us believing that we are only our physical existence and so the predominant though is on differences. This allows us to participate in the illusion that we are alone, that no one understands, and we are the only ones who feel, think or behave a certain way, etc.  In this reality we are left to fend for ourselves, we are in competition, and there is a limited amount of everything.  What a harsh reality to live in.  If we are to focus on reality as God created it, then we are part of a whole.  We are a drop of water in the ocean of life.  We are connected and bonded with all that is.  Our connection however is not just in word but in the energy of love.  In other words, the most powerful force in existence is our connection to ourselves, to God, and to each other.  If we live according to God’s thinking then everything and everyone counts.  It is all part of us.  I can no longer operate under the illusion that I am not connected in love to anyone or anything even the things that I resist.  This is why the great spiritual teachers speak of loving one’s enemies, For me it includes remembering to love the parts of myself that I do not like.  Sometimes I just stop and ask God: Help me to see the love that I cannot see in this person, situation, or myself.  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to embrace the entirety of our existence by remembering the love that connects us to even the parts of reality we don’t like.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is softness, quietness, peacefulness and preciousness.  Like a child whose gentle smile tugs at your heart-strings and light you up from inside, God awakens in us the tenderness of our hearts.  When we are moved to share that tenderness with others and with ourselves, we are living our calling.  There are many portrayals of God as being foreboding and condemning but those are accounts written by man.  Often times we create a notion of God that is not God at all but the dark nature of our human experience plastered on top of the word God.  We create a being that rules from fear in order to control.  But why would God need to control if God is All That Is?  I have often thought I was motivated by fear, ridicule, oppression and condemnation.  I thought if I was just harsh enough to myself that it would propel me into being better or doing better.  It never quite worked, at least not in a way that was lasting.  That was my best thinking. How could being cruel to myself cause me to be the best version of myself on any day?  The only thing it achieved was to cause me to be more cruel.  God’s thinking calls for tenderness and acceptance.  God’s thinking simply presents what is happening and allows me the freedom to decide if it is working for me or not.  If it works for me then I find that I am capable of  greater love, peace, and kindness. If it works for me I am one of many, connected to all, and feel joy. If it doesn’t work for me I know because I am fearful, discontent, better or worse than all of you and separate. My prayer for us today is that we be open to the tenderness of God that touches our hearts and calls us to what really works for us.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The connection that exists among us is beyond our comprehension.  We rely on our ability to distinguish and categorize things so much that we lose sight of the similarity of things.  At our core, we all come from the same place.  Our essence was designed by the same creator. We just manifest that creation in a different fashion. We would not look at varied bouquet of flowers and criticize the orchids for not looking like roses or the sunflowers for not taking on the same color as the daffodils.  Why do we look at our outer differences and say one is better than the other, or better looking, or more valuable?  Are we not all flowers?  Are we not all a contribution of beauty to the world in our fashion?  We all come from the same place and all require sun, water, and nourishment to live and thrive.  God calls us to relate to each other with the familiarity of our own selves.  The reason we want so much to make others the other is because we see in them things we do not want to see in us. This is also part of the design to become more of who we truly are by practicing love. Love is action, it is a way of being, it is who we are. If we are be the love that we are, we are to love all.  That means all of ourselves–good and bad and all of others–approved of or not. My prayer for us today is that we be open to being the love that we are and connecting with the other as familiar. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

God gives a full life to all of creation!  We are not just beings who take up space.  We have the ability to connect, to love, to think, to create and to share.  So much of how we measure ourselves is by the world’s standards of greatness.  This is the world that does not value as highly the small and simple.  It operates out of the idea that small and simple is not enough.  The value of the ability to full listen to another human being is without measure.  The ability to connect with an idea that inspires growth in the one who thought of it and lives of those around him/her.  The ability to reach out an extend the hand of compassion to someone who feels alone and neglected.  The ability of seeing what is actually right in front of us instead of just what is in our own head.  The ability to be present for the beauty of the wind that touches our skin.  The ability to smile when we see a child smile.  These abilities to not win awards or stop traffic but for those moments when we are present to them, they are the world.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to the ability to respond to the life we are in this very moment.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is so enamored with us that we are given gifts every moment of every day.  Each experience we have is a gift! Each breath we are given is a gift. Each decision we get to make is a gift.  Each opportunity to act is a gift.  Every circumstance and situation is a gift.  We are often so set on what we expect our gifts to be that we miss the ones that are right in front of us.  We foresee certain packaging, delivery forms, and givers.  We even think we know how we are going to react to the gift.  But the essence of a gift is being present for the present.  If we have already decided what it will look like, how it will come, who will deliver it, what the packaging will be, and what it will feel like to receive it, then it is not a gift. The gifts from God are opportunities to grow in love.  The gifts of circumstances where we choose to be our authentic higher selves and respond with the love that we are.  In those moments we are the gift and we can receive the unexpected gift that comes from being in alignment with God.  Accepting is the answer.  We cannot fully receive a gift if we are not willing to be present in the circumstance in which it is being given.  To accept the gifts being given, it helps to be present for the present.  My prayer for us today is that we ask for the courage to see the circumstances of our day as the gifts that we didn’t know we wanted or needed but trust that Spirit knows gifts.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen