Good Evening friends, Tonight's blog might be a little short, but brevity sometimes is a good thing. I'be been thinking about trust a great deal lately. More specifically, trust in God's divine plans for each of us. I know that God has a plan for me, and I try to let that plan unfold daily. Often, though, I wish and let God know, that I'd like to have a clue sometimes as to why things happen or don't, just so I know I'm heading in the right direction.
I also know that the choices I make impact how that divine plan unfolds. Again, I feel the need to understand what it is I'm supposed to do. I try very hard to make right decisions, to lead with my heart. I think I do a pretty good job with that, but not always. Does anyone else feel like I do? I know I have a purpose, and a little voice in my head tells me I have a purpose, and I think I know what that purpose is, but I'd like to know for certain. One thing I have always believed is that each of us has within him or herself the power to control their own destiny. God has given each of talents of varying sorts. Within each of us is the ability to manifest all the things that God wants us to have. The relationship we have with God is similar to the relationship we have with our parents or our children. We guide them with love and encouragement to spread their wings and fly. We allow them to make decisions and either reap the rewards or suffer the consequences. Of course, as parents we hate seeing them suffer, but it is often that suffering that helps them to grow strong. I think that God gets a twinge of angst when we do things that cause us pain. I also believe that he rejoices when we grow and good things bring us joy. I'm learning to listen to that little voice. I hope that you will also listen to that little voice in your head and follow God's plans for you. It's that little voice, you know. Love, Light, Peace, and Joy!!
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Good evening friends. Today is the day after Valentine's Day. I hope that you had a wonderful day yesterday with your loved ones or special one. I spent a short evening with my mother and grandson eating dinner, which was takeout, but hey, we got to spend some time together. And we had a nice time, although we were short one grandchild. I'm not certain of all what happened but the fact that she was absent was a disappointment. What further put thoughts in my brain was that she is shy and tends not to communicate, which upsets her much older brother. Let's say that he got his "patience" from his grandmother, me.
I'm not certain how that particular virtue escaped me, or so it seems, but for most of my life, patience has been lacking. Oh, I expected others to be patient with me, but when I needed to be patient, well, I rarely was. I can honestly say that I have grown in that respect over the years. Partly, because I have grown older and we tend to be somewhat more patient with others as we require others to be more patient with us. But teenagers or children in general today, have VERY LITTLE patience. They are the immediate gratification generation, and it isn't entirely their fault. It's what they grew up with. Seemingly everything in the blink of an eye. But back to patience. How do we learn patience you might ask? I think we ask for grace from God to help us with that. Also, and probably more accurately, when we come from a point of love it is easier to do. In my mind it comes down to love. If we can act out of love, then all will be as it should. To me this is the lesson I have been learning over the last few decades. Is everything so critical or urgent that we can't wait for a bit? Look at how we drive these days. It seems as though NASCAR has broken out of the ovals and tri-ovals and hit the highways and byways. Everyone is in such a rush, that we lose our patience when someone takes a little longer than expected to move when the light turns green or causes us to brake when the other driver slows down for a turn. Over the past few weeks I have found myself coaching other drivers from my car, like they can hear me, to "find the long pedal on the right." (Truly that's what I say out loud.) Then I say to myself, why are you in such a hurry, you have plenty of time to get to work or to get wherever I'm headed. Then I myself slow down a bit and take it easier. If someone wants the left lane, I often move over (I tend to drive in the left lane because I drive a little faster than those in the right lane) and let them have it. I'm learning. In my own way I'm sending out love and demonstrating patience to perfect strangers who don't even know they are helping me to learn this. So, this evening I will say my prayers specifically for my grandson to have some patience with his little sister, and I will pray for my granddaughter to find her voice and confidence, because they are both very loving young people who just need to learn a little patience with each other and that will overflow toward others as well. So, my friends may God give you the grace to be patient when you need it. I believe it is so. Love, Light, Peace, and Joy! on I've been thinking a great deal about where my focus is these days. It seems to be all over the place. One day I'm focusing on abundance, the next I'm focusing on healing, then I'm focusing on my life's purpose. Heavens, how many things can we focus?
As we are all aware, what we focus on is what we manifest. Maybe that's not how you word it, but it's the same thing. Have you noticed it? How focusing on what you don't want brings you more of what you don't want? It has taken me YEARS to realize this, but truthfully, only the last few. I'm not certain age brings wisdom, but I can attest to this truth, and that is age brings on for many the realization that life is WAY too short to be focusing on all the "unwanted things". I know we learn from those challenges. I am also learning to ask God for the grace to get through whatever lesson it is that I need to learn. Often, I ask for me to learn it quickly; that way I can move on the good stuff on the other side. I think one of my biggest challenges nowadays is to keep focused on the goal. So, I will ask you what I ask myself-- What is the goal? Have you made plans on how you will reach the goal? Are the steps you have put in place measurable and realistic? Just an example, at my age, for those who don't know, I'm in my 60s; is I would like to be more toned and agile. Is that a measurable goal? Sure it is. I would also like to have the body and muscle tone I had when I was in my 20s and 30s. Is that realistic? No, I can achieve much, but I cannot turn back the clock. So, I have to focus on what I can achieve. For me with this goal, it is to be more toned and more flexible. So, I work out and I do Yoga. However, those aren't my only goals or dreams, if that's what you want to call it. I would also like to be more fiscally frugal. And I can tell you that God blesses me abundantly with prosperity. I have enough. I am truly grateful for the fact that my bills are paid timely, and I'm whittling things down. I'm not debt free just yet, but that is one thing on which I am focused. I watch what I spend, another achievement for me. I take care of myself to keep me healthy. That also means pampering myself from time to time. So my focus is to be as healthy as I can possibly be. So, now the trick will be to BALANCE all the different aspects of my life and stay focused on the goals. I guess, balancing is a skill. I must remember to be gentle with myself as I learn this skill. Realistically, you cannot focus on EVERYTHING at the same time, but you can focus on one thing at a time for a period of time, then put that aside to focus on something else. See, I just figured out how to balance while writing to you all. Stay focused!!! Sending you all Love, Light, Peace, and Joy!!! These days I find it difficult to find peace. You look at social media or you listen to the news, and the only things you see or hear are people carping about something. I know that change is a tough cookie to swallow sometimes, but folks "things are a changin." I cannot tell the future, so I don't know if the change is going to be good or not so good. I do know that it is change. And personally, finding peace is a true challenge these days.
We have not been nice to one another. Some have drawn the line in the proverbial sand that if you support one or the other then you can't be my friend. It is troublesome. It is worth noting, as well, that change is inevitable. If you are not changing then you are dead, as a friend of mine used to say. When my friend would say this, I used to think, oh Lord, not again. But you know, my friend is correct. If we try to stand still, the world will just move on without us. It does you know, even when I or anyone is experiencing really difficult times or going through significant loss or other tragedies, the world just goes on. The sun will rise the next day, and the moon will follow. The wind will blow, and the oceans will crash upon the shores. It seems that the world is indifferent to all the human suffering. So, I myself am having difficulty dealing with all the hate mongering by my fellow humans. Is having one's way so very important that one would sever friendships over not having it? I used to be like that not all that long ago. Being right was oh so important. But what I have found in recent times, is that being kind is oh so much more important. Kindness begets kindness. Hate begets hate. (If you don't believe me on the latter, just look at social media and the news.) It also seems that the negative stuff seems to flourish much more quickly than the positive stuff. Perhaps the story of Noah and the Ark might be a good example of what I mean. When God told Noah to gather the animals, He told him to gather seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a mae and its mate ...(Gen. Chapter 7:3, Concordia Self-Study Bible). I guess God knew how His creations would reproduce, so He made certain to even the odds so that both clean and unclean would proliferate. But is seems an apt analogy for how much more quickly hate spreads or bad news or rumors than good news or positive things. Like you I can't control those things, I can only control what I myself do. In fact, I can't control very much, and I'm learning NOT to control very much. I'm learning to trust in God that all will work out. I'm learning to believe that no matter the chaos around me, I CAN be at peace within. I'm not saying it's easy to get there, but I'm learning that I can be at peace when things seem to be falling apart. There is a power much greater than I, and while I am part of that power, I am not the generator of that power. I have been practicing keeping peace. Peace about others rights to speak out, and peace about my own counsel to be quiet. This place is where I share my thoughts with you. I don't worry about being judged, because I don't judge. I find peace in my heart, that whatever is in my highest and best good will prevail. I find peace in knowing that God protects me and no harm can come to me because I trust in Him. I hope that you too can find that for yourself. It is a powerful thing finding peace within. Sending you all Love, Light, Peace, and Joy!! |
AuthorI'm just an ordinary person on my path to enlightenment. I enjoy learning, and lately I'm learning how to enjoy the challenges that present themselves as opportunities for me to grow. I hope that you find encouragement and inspiration through this blog. Archives
December 2020
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