Spirituality Guide

Have you seen it? Anywhere? Does anyone truly have peace in their lives?

Sometimes, no a lot of times, we fill our lives up to the max with things that stress us out, fill us up and leaves us empty. What are all these things that stretch us but don’t give us peace? Are they worth it?

It’s no wonder that Christ admonishes us in scripture to be content with the things such as we have. They are enough for us to have; things that is.

If we are to have total peace, what do you think peace is?

The best that God has to offer us is what?

What is HIS best to us as His children? If He never gave us anything else, if He never blessed us with anything more, if we live each day and never get another thing from Him, what is His best to us?

His best to us as His children is the unconditional love to us. Remember as a child, your parents would spank you and then say to you that they did this because they LOVED you? Strange isn’t it?

Let’s think about His best. What do you think?

The other day my daughter came to me, very shyly and quietly and asked me, “Mom, can you keep a secret?�? I immediately wondered, what could be so secretive about the life of a 10 year old kid? What could be so “hush-hush�? that we would have to lock ourselves off from the rest of the family to ‘discuss’ something. Well, the first thing I thought was that there was this deep, dark secret about the little boys in her class and how they could be getting fresh and out of line. My tigress antennas were up and I was ready to pounce on whatever the secret was that came out of her mouth. What was it?

My little girl has been a sweet little girl, ever since the day she was born. Perfect, no, but she has always done whatever she can to please her parents and to make God smile on her. She takes great pleasure in doing good deeds and will get visibly upset if she makes us unhappy with her actions. So, as you can imagine, I was wondering, “what?�?.

Well, although I cannot tell you what her secret was, suffice it to say that she was worried about if something she had done had displeased God. She was concerned to know if God still loved her and would let her come into heaven one day.

How worried or concerned are we if God sees and knows what we’ve done? How concerned are we about our actions and the consequences of those actions on the ones we know and love and even on the ones who don’t know us. How bad does it hurt us if we disappoint God?

Let’s live our lives as if God is looking right at us. Because He is. Let’s be ready to please God no matter what. Let’s be sensitive to the mind and heart of God in all things. So sensitive that we stay on alert, careful of actions, our thoughts, our words.

There is a saying that if you just let God do it, He will do it. This means that sometimes we have to stop doing it ourselves and let Him handle it. This includes taking care of our own problems, situations, distractions and interruptions, He is more than capable of doing above and beyond what we expect and what we think. He can do all things, if we just give Him a chance and the opportunity to be in our lives.

All that we have to do, all that is required from us is just to stop…and let Him do it.

What motivates your spirituality? What makes you feel ready to take on the world and conquer all?

Do you feel motivated today?

I have days where I feel like I can do anything, take on anything, finish ALL things. Each day I wake up with renewed energy, renewed zeal to finish my to-do list, talk to God in a meaningful way and generally be able to accomplish all the things I need to for a successful day.

I’m motivated when I hit the send button, turn the switch off, close the door and stop the sounds. I feel accomplished when one more thing I do matters to those in my sphere.

What motivates you?

My daughter’s bad dream was due to something that the enemy was telling her. She said he kept giving her thoughts about God not being good and not working on her side. She was very, very upset about this and was crying pretty hard. I told her she had nothing to fear because we are winners and the devil is a loser.

My, how the enemy wars against us.

Just when we think we have it all under control, BOOM, the bottom falls out. My daughter though that the enemy wouldn’t bother her because she really, really, REALLY loves God. I told her that those are the ones he bothers the most.

If he bothers us, we must be doing something right. Tell me…is he bothering you?

My daughter had a bad dream the other night and got up to come to me. She said she had been having the same bad dream for a few weeks and did not know what she should do about it.

When she came to me, she asked if we could pray. I told her of course we could. That was the best thing she could do was to pray. God would make it better for her. Things would be alright.

We prayed as she cried and cried so hard I thought she was going to be sick. We prayed as she shook and trembled and her eyes were starting to swell from the tears. I held her and rocked her as we prayed.

While we prayed, I asked the Lord to take away the bad dreams. I asked Hm to make it alright. I asked her what the bad dream was all about.

I’ll share that later in the week, but one thing that my daughter said to me that stuck was this: she said she felt better, she felt more powerful after she went to church and heard the Word. This was Saturday night and she was wondering if we were going to go to church the next day. She said it made her feel better. It made her feel better.

We go to church almost every Sunday when we’re in town. But after she said that, I made a point to myself that no matter where we are, what we’re doing, who’s around and who’s not, WE WILL go to church. The child said she felt more power when she did. What would you do then? Go or not go?

She felt much better after church on Sunday. It’s amazing what the Word can do.

We live in such a fast-paced world. There is always something to do. There is always somthing or someone who demands our attention. There is always something that should have been done…yesterday.

Today is our day to slow things down. Today, don’t be in such a hurry to do it. Just take it one step at a time, one thing at a time.

It will be a breath of fresh air if we can just learn to slow down.

If you ever feel challenged in getting quiet time on a daily basis, try this:

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, just stop and pray. Sometimes it’s hard to try and find total quiet and peaceful time. I have tried and have been trying for a long time. I’ve concluded that you just have to take it however you can get it.

If you’re trying to exercise and pray, just do both. What about dishes and prayer? Just do it. I’ve even actually prayed and communed with God while sitting in business meetings.

When it comes to quiet time, you just have to take it however you can get it.

In the church sermon yesterday, the minister talked about the importance of prayer. He reminded us (the congregation) just how important it is for us to pray and for us to keep a line of communication open with God. He told us to not get trapped into thinking that we had to pray like everyone else or that we had to pray like they did in “Bible” times.

Everyday I wake up, I pray. Some days I don’t (formally) because…I never know what to say. Or, I never know if I’m saying it the right way. Yesterday’s message really released me from a lot of bondages. Now, I don’t feel like I have to begin and end every prayer a certain way.

I feel that God DOES hear each of our prayers and calls to Him. I feel that we CAN come to Him in our own way and tell him the desires of our heart. We can tell Him what we think, how we feel, where we hurt and ask His guidance. But growing up in a traditional church setting sometimes makes us think and feel that if we don’t do it a ‘certain’ way, God won’t hear us. Not so.

I want to let everyone know today, that He does hear you and He hears me. How wonderful it is to know that we can really, REALLY talk to God anywhere, anytime and in anyplace.

When we cast our nets into the deep, whatever shall we find?

Will it be more peace?
What about extra love?
Cash; that wouldn’t hurt, would it?
What about friends and a happy family.

Well, when we cast our nets into the deep, we don’t know what will come up. So live happy. Live good. Live pure. You never know. The deepness might give you something you’ve had before.

You never will know until you cast your nets!

Today was the first time in a long time that I’ve been able to get up and spend some time in reflection, unbothered and unhurried. Life is like that. Once you get one thing under control, seems like another something gets out of control. Sometimes it feels like we’re spiraling and the merry-go-’round ride never, ever wants to end. When I feel like that, I like to reflect and think to myself — quietly. It means a lot when you can get off by yourself and have uniterrupted, quiet time. With life being so hectic, so full, so busy, that becomes a luxury. This morning I got off to myself and began to think about what direction I really want my life to go. Pretty broad, isn’t it? I know it is. But I’m thinking more along the lines of short term things; how to make things different or easier for the next three to five years. My kids are young right now. Very young. I sometimes feel that I only have a little time with them because they grow so very fast. I want to be with them every minute I can, laughing, giggling and just watching their little bodies and minds grow. It’s a wonderful thing. I sometimes think about how God watches us grow and if He gets that same giddy, stomach-pit feeling we do when we gaze at His creation; us. I wonder if He longs like we do to spend more time with us, to talk with us, perhaps even share a light moment. I wonder. But then, He is God, free from all human elements and thinking. But, God loves ME more than I even love my children! I cannot begin to imagine that feeling. Sufficient to say that He does indeed love me. I want to know more about His love, since I can identify **just a little**.

Do you agree?

It’s only 9:00 a.m. where I am right now and I’m already thinking about my day; what’s for breakfast, how many articles I plan to write, what errands I have to run, what am I going to do to entertain the kids today, so on and so forth. As most of you probably do, we plan our days to be sure to get everything we need in. Having several responsibilities in life can sometimes have us feeling overwhelmed and displaced. No matter how busy we get though, think about this: Be nice to someone today.

Be nice? Be nice? I know you’re thinking I must be a bored, lonely person if all I think about is being nice to someone. Trust me, I’m not bored and my kids and husband make SURE I don’t stay lonely. But what I am talking about is being pleasant, being nice to folks around you.

We live in a society where people seem like they’re always angry about something. There are attitudes flinging and necks rolling, just because you ask for fries with that drink, or paper instead of plastic. People are just unhappy. But, with a little pleasantness from you, that attitude can really be extinguished. You can create a pleasant environment instead of tension just by your facial expression, your body language and your smile. Say something or do something that will possibly extinguish that fire. You have the ability to make someone’s day just by being nice, by being pleasant.

Think about it. And do something nice today.

Today is Friday. The end of the week. The end of another 5 days (or maybe just 4 this week) of scuffing, scratching, clawing and whining just to make it all happen. Let’s resolve something altogether.

Monday, let’s resolve that we will start the week unfrazzled, unworried and unbothered. Let’s resolve that no matter what happens and who it happens through, we will not let ourselves be caught up in the drama. We are going to live peaceful, peaceably and comfortably in this wonderful, beautiful world God has given us.

Ready? See you on Monday.

When God wants to get our attention, He has a special way of calling us. He uses people. He uses things. He uses a still small voice to get our attention.

He calls us when we’re confused, depressed, happy AND sad. Have you heard His voice? What do you hear?