Living in the moment

Yesterday, I saw a beautiful sunset on my way home from work. I enjoyed every minute of it and thanked God for creating something so beautiful and for allowing me to enjoy it. As soon as I felt the gratitude for it in my heart, I heard God say, I made it for you. The realization brought me to tears and blessed my heart. 

The beauty that surrounds us each day was made for us. God created it all for our benefit. So many times, however, I fail to notice His creation. I get so absorbed in the things that man has created that I fail to enjoy what God has created. 

How many times have I been thinking about my problems or listening to the radio and never even glanced into the sky? How many times I have wasted my day by trying to live in the past or the future? How many masterpieces has God created for us that we never even noticed?

In the present moment, I can find peace. When I am fully present, seeking God with my whole heart, then I can find Him. The wonder of Him is all around us. Most of the time, we are just too busy to notice. 

I love it when I can be fully present in the moment. I love it when I can quiet my mind so that I can hear the still, small voice of my Lord. The more I seek Him, the more He speaks to me. In the past week, I have really been working on being present. When I’m having a conversation with someone, I want to give them my full attention. When I’m reading my Bible, I want to concentrate and try to understand it. Instead of living on autopilot, I want to take time to enjoy my life. 

I wash my hands numerous times each day, but I can’t even tell you the smell of the soap. Because I am just going through the motions without paying attention. But, I want to start paying attention to the small details of life. I want to take time to enjoy my coffee—instead of rushing through it. Sometimes I finish my cup without even realizing it because I am distracted. Then, I feel disappointed because I didn’t enjoy it. 

I don’t want to finish my course one day and realize that I rushed through my life, but I never fully lived. I want to slow down and allow God to show me how to truly live my life.

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Love unconditionally

We believe that other people should be like us. Then, when they are not we get upset with them. The truth is that God made us all unique. Asking someone else to be like me is asking them to deny the uniqueness of themselves. 

If we could all learn to be true to ourselves, then we could eliminate a lot of our pain. When I try to change my personality and be like someone else, then it causes me stress. It makes me feel as if I am not good enough—just as am I. Therefore, I constantly feel bad about myself because I am not being myself. 

Having my family take the personality test opened my eyes. Each one of us has a different personality. Therefore, the things we like to do are different. So are the way we do them. Trying to control other people and their lives make me miserable, as well as the ones I am trying to control. 

When we try to understand other people, instead of judging them, then we have a beautiful opportunity to see things differently. Loving someone right where they are is a wonderful gift. It removes the conditions of love and reminds us to love the person—just as they are. 

We don’t have to change anything about our lives for God to love us. He loves us all right where we are in our lives. Regardless of our sins or shortcomings, God loves us. We can’t do anything to earn His love, and yet He gives it to us freely. All we have to do is accept it. When we open our hearts and invite God to come in, then He will make every part of our lives better. 

It all starts with love. I want to try to love others as well as God loves me. In His eyes, I am good enough. I am His beloved daughter. While He can see my flaws and all of my faults and failures, He doesn’t withhold His love from me because of my imperfections. He loves us all unconditionally. I am so thankful that I can’t do anything to separate me from His love. 

Romans 8:38-39 (KJV)

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let’s give our loved ones the same kind of love. Let’s not allow anything to get in our way of loving them. Regardless of what they are going through, let’s love them through it. If they hurt us, let’s forgive them quickly and love them even harder. In the end, love is all that matters. 

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God is...

The only way for me to truly see the goodness of the Lord is for me to keep my eyes on Him. In order to see His blessings, I need to look for them. God will give us the desires of our hearts, but first, we must desire Him. 

When I seek the Lord with my whole heart and desire Him, more than the things of the world, then He blesses me abundantly. I can’t serve the Lord, however, with my mind in the world. He wants me to choose each day who I am going to serve. 

Serving God means turning loose of everything in the world. The world has restrictions and guidelines for how we are supposed to act. Society paints us a picture of perfection and wants us to follow it. The image that it wants us to chase does not exist. That is why it is so easy to become stressed and depressed. No one could ever live up to these standards. There is no joy in this kind of life.

The joy in life comes from knowing God. The more I read His beautiful word, the more that I come to love Him. God never intended for us to live the way the world wants us to live. 

Every day, I want to set my eyes on Him. I want to replace the lies of the world with the truth of God. I want to walk and talk to Him and be encouraged by His word. I want to surrender my life to Him, and trust Him to do what is best for me. I want Him to mold me into the person that He wants me to be. The more time that I spend with Him, the more time that I want to spend with Him. It is such a blessing to be able to read His word and to talk to Him. 

God is the creator of my life and the keeper of my soul. Every day He speaks His love into my heart. He helps me to see His goodness and to desire His blessings. In God, I have everything that I need. And I am so thankful to know Him. 

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Becoming quiet

We get so caught up in things that don’t even matter. The enemy is a mastermind at distracting us. If he can keep us busy by drifting through our days and wasting our time, then we can’t do the things of importance. Lately, I’ve been noticing how I spend my time and how I feel after I do certain things. When we get honest with ourselves and truly observe our lives, then we can see how the devil manipulates us and distracts us. 

Therefore, I want to do more of the things that bring peace and joy into my life. So often we blame God for our hardships when we are the ones who choose to do each thing in our day. I have learned that I bring many of life’s hardships upon myself. If we want a different life, then we need to do things differently. 

Walking in nature is one of my favorite things to do each day. It helps me to put things into perspective. In order for me to hear the voice of my Lord, I have to step outside of all the noise. When I talk about my problems with Him and then become quiet, He instructs me. 

Another thing that has helped me is journaling. Each evening I sit down for a few minutes and just write about my day. Then I ask God questions. It’s amazing at how when we ask a question in stillness the answer appears. 

Instead of being distracted by social media, I have been studying bible verses. The time that I used to scroll through Facebook or Instagram is now being used to feed my soul with God’s word. While it is rewarding, the devil is not happy with me. He doesn’t want me to spend more time with my Lord. Therefore, he is trying to cause me grief. But instead of giving in, I have been pushing through the resistance.  

I know that if I can continue and set up good habits, then my life will be more peaceful. I have learned that we don’t have to tune into the noise of the world. We can choose to turn off all the drama. This is our lives and we get to choose what we will allow in our lives. I want to choose to spend my time wisely. 

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Changing my story

If I allowed my mind to control my life it would be a mess. Most of the time, my first initial thoughts are like a toddler out of control. My mind loves to create stories. They don’t make sense. They are irrational and filled with drama. And they are simply not true.

When I allow my mind to create untrue stories and then base my feelings off of these stories, I feel horrible. My mind loves the worst case scenario stories. It picks out the flaws in others and then judges them based on the untrue stories I have created. 

Therefore, when I notice that others are irritating me, I start examining my thoughts. My problem is usually in my thinking. No one can even make me mad or hurt me without my permission. It is not the situation that bothers us, it is our thoughts about it. 

The sooner I realize this, the easier it is for me to look for the truth. When I step back and look at the situation, then I am usually able to find perspective. Then, I can react with love and compassion. 

The enemy wants us to believe his lies and to live in the stories that he creates in our minds. He wants us to take the negative thoughts and wallow in them. Exposing the lies with the truth is like shining light onto his darkness. In the light, none of it seems as bad. God wants us to center our minds and heart on Him. He is the goodness. That is what we should be thinking about. 

Philippians 4:8 (KJV)

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

When I can abide by this scripture then my life is so much better. I can radiate love and shine a light out to others to give them a little glimpse of God. 

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Find out how to change your thoughts to change your life

What a gift it is to be given a choice in our lives. We get to decide what we want to do, how we are going to do it, and when we are going to do it. Ultimately, we get to decide what we are going to think and even how we are going to feel. The problem is that most of us don’t realize we have this power. 

I remember a time in my life when I was completely miserable. My every thought was doom and gloom. I worried about everything. I took three pills a day for anxiety, and I was still anxious. I had anxiety attacks daily and lived in a prison of fear that I had created for myself. 

Then one day, I asked God to help me to overcome my anxiety. As it turns out, all that I needed to change was my thoughts. Once I changed my thoughts, my life changed. 

Instead of worrying about everything, I started praying about everything. Every night I would go sit out on my deck and pour my heart out to God. He helped me to see things differently. 

My problem was that I was trying to live in the past and the future. As much as we would like to go into the past and change things, it is just not possible. Instead of making myself miserable over things which had already happened, I learned to forgive the person or situation and then release the negative feelings. The only person I was hurting by harboring negative feelings was me. 

When I noticed myself worrying about things that may or may not happen in the future, then I brought myself back to the present moment. In my present moment, everything was okay. However, I was ruining it by trying to live in the past and future. 

The present moment is all that we will ever have. Therefore, we need to make better choices for the life we are living today. Now I am aware of my thoughts. If I find myself feeling anxious or worrying about things, then I audit my thoughts. Usually, the thought causing me pain is a lie. Once I find it and correct it, then I am able to reclaim my peace. I have found that it is never my circumstances causing my pain. It is my thoughts about my circumstances that cause me pain.

If you would like for me to teach you how to overcome your painful circumstances, then send me a message. I will do a new online course starting January 14, 2019. This process truly changed my life and I would love to share it with you.

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Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I love how incredible it feels to wake up to a brand new year. Last night, I imagined giving God all of my fears, worries, and limiting beliefs. When I surrendered my fear, He gave me courage. When I handed Him my worries, He offered me faith. When I offered Him my limiting beliefs, He offered me hope.

I want to live my life this year filled with hope, faith, and courage. I want to show up every single day of this year for those I love. I am so excited about the possibilities of what can happen this year. 

My heart’s desire is to walk closer to God. I want to know more about Him. I want to read and study the scriptures and do my very best to be a light to Him in some way. This year, I want to enjoy every single day that God gives me. I desire to make the most of it and to live fully present in each moment. I want to have daily conversations with my Lord. 

Each day I want to walk in a way that is pleasing to Him. I want to know what it truly feels like to live, instead of enduring my days and just barely getting by. 

So I am stepping out of my comfort zone and setting some really hard goals for myself. The person I am now will not be able to accomplish these goals. Therefore, I will have to grow. And, I look forward to growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord. I want to be stronger, wiser, be more patient, courageous, hopeful, have more faith, be more loving, and for my light to shine brighter.

Joshua 1:9 King James Version (KJV)

9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Who do you want to become this year?

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